The Bernese Mountain Dog

Breed-group: Mastiff

Nature: affectionate and faithful

Average age: 8 to 12 years

Shoulder height: male: 64-70 cm / female: 58-66 cm

Weight: male: 50-60 kilo / female: 40-50 kilo

Fur: long, black with white and tan

Apitude: company dog, sheperd dog and guard dog

Association with kids: very good

Live environment: a house with a garden

Fur care: brusch regularly

A farmer descent

Switzerland is the cradle of the Bernese Mountain Dog. Probably, dogs of a strong sort already were being hold in the Middle Ages. Animals which did the same work in the same area, did look like eachother, but breeds we know now, didn't exist 100 years ago.

Three-colour drawings, which are typical for the Mountain Dogs, did appear a lot in Switzerland those times. Also a lot of black-white and red-white dogs were being bred for work on and around the farm.

There was no uniformity in fur-length and -structur; the farmers selected their dogs exclusively at a functional appearance and character.

 

From a working dog to a breed dog

from the precursors of the Bernese Mountain Dog is known that they were being hold especially in the neighbourhood of Bern. They were being used as a hurding-dog for the goats and cows, as a guarding-dog on the yards of the farms and as a draught-dog for the milk cart.

In the second half of the 19th century, the industrialisation pervaded in Switzerland. More and more farmers and shepards turned their back at their old existence and migrated to the cities and bigger places where they could work in a factory to earn money. Naturally, this is the reason that there was less work for the dogs, so the amount decreased.

The farmers and the shepards didn't care about the faith of these work-dogs, nor the dog experts (kynologen) either. Because they were "just" average farmer-working-dogs. It is typical that other Swiss dog breeds like the Sint-Bernard and foreign dog breeds did have support.

Because of a small group of dog experts which cared about the working dogs, is the reason they still exist. One of them was the dog expert and Newfoundlander breeder proffessor dr Albert Heim. He arranged that the Bernese Mountain Dogs got the attention of the dog experts in Switzerland.

 

Dürrbächlers

In the beginning of 1900 the Bernese Mountain Dogs, then called Dürrbächlers, were regularly seen at exhebitions. The breed name Dürrbächler is derived from a small Swiss village Dürrbäch in the canton of Bern.

Landlord Hofman, which lived there in the end of the 19th century, bred dogs which were as well beautifull as versatile and in a short time a dog which came from Dürrbäch or looked like one, called a Dürrbächler.

In 1907 some dog breeders dicided to breed true-bred Dürrbächlers. In the same year they setted up the first breed organisation for Dürrbächlers: the Sweizerischen Dürrbächklub and they arranged a breed standard.

In 1913 under the command of Heim the breed name Bernese Mountain Dog officially is being introduced and the name of the organisation changed in 'Klub für Berner Sennenhunde".

 

 

The Bernese Moutain Dogs in the 20th century

Until the '60 from the 20th century the Bernese Mountain Dog was a unfamiliar phenomenon outside Switzerland and breeding and exhebition of this breed mostly was a national matter. A few dogs were being exported. However from that time time dogs were being exported to different countries in Europe and to the U.S.

The increased familiarity of the breed caused also a rising popularity. And when there's a great demand for a breed, things can go wrong. Under pressure of the great demand, dogs were being bred which weren't breed-typical. Also because of the inbreeding with 'bad'dogs things were going wrong in the '70. In these years the history of the breed is at its lowest ebb.

The biggest problems were being caused by unlawful great percentage animals, especially male dogs, that shows behaviour disorders, like shyness, unpredicatble and aggressiveness; properties which don't belong at a Bernese Mountain Dog.

Of course this had a negative outcoming at the whole breed. Because of forced measures, like a temporary breed prohibition and later the introduction of behaviour tests for breed animals and their offspring, fortunately these problems are history.

Even nog behaviour test are being maded to prevent repetition. And because all of these efforts the character of the Bernese Mountain Dog is normalised and is now the reliable, stable farmer dog like he used to be.