Dog Breed Guide

Bernese Mountain Dog

Profile

Size

Large

Country of origin

Switzerland

Origin

Ancient

Bred for

Herding, Draft work, Watchdog

Height

male 64 - 70cm (25 - 28in), female 58 - 66cm (23 - 26in)

Weight

male 38 - 50kg (84 - 110lb), female 36 - 48kg (79 - 106lb)

Life span

7 - 10 years

The Bernese is known for its long, glossy coat in three sharply defined colors: black, white and rust. Rust markings above the eyes look like eyebrows, and together with the white cross-shaped marking on the chest they give the face a noble look.

Gentle and friendly, the Bernese is very kind to its family and to children. It is easygoing and loves nothing more than being close to its people. It is intelligent and willing, so training is fairly easy, but it grows big quickly, so teach it not to pull on the leash from puppyhood.

It tolerates cold well but suffers badly in heat, so in hot weather it needs to stay indoors with air conditioning. It sheds heavily and needs frequent brushing during shedding season. The breed is prone to cancer and other diseases and is known for its relatively short life span.

Good to know

Around Bern, the Swiss capital, these dogs worked on farms as watchdogs, moved livestock and pulled carts loaded with milk cans. Switzerland has four breeds called Sennenhunde (Alpine herding dogs), and the Bernese is the only one with a long coat.

The breed was once known as the Dürrbächler, after the Dürrbach inn in a village near Bern where dairy traders gathered. By the end of the 19th century mechanization had taken away much of its work and its numbers fell sharply, but the Swiss geologist Albert Heim and others set out to preserve it, and a breed club was founded in 1907. The breed was later renamed after Bern and its mountains.

In Switzerland and the United States, Berners still compete in carting, or drafting, events, where you can see them pulling carts with the strength of their working ancestors.