Saint Bernard
History
Around 1050 AD, Saint Bernard of Montjou founded a monastery
high in the Swiss Alps, with the Saint Bernard Pass in
the valley below. The pass was a popular route for travelers
and pilgrims as well as many traders. These traders were
the first to bring dogs to the Saint Bernard Monastery
until 1125. For the next four hundred years the pass was
largely abandoned and few travelers passed the monastery.
No new dogs entered the Saint Bernard Monastery, and it
was during this time that the Saint Bernard breed arose.
C. Keller, a
scientist, first bred the Saint Bernard from the Roman “Molossian” dog.
The Molossian is said to have came from the Tibetan Mastiff.
The first Saint
Bernards were kept at the monastery as guard dogs. The
first written account of a Saint Bernard, however, was
not made until 1703 by Prior Balalu. In his writing, he
spoke of the cook inventing an exercise wheel for the dog
to run on, which in turn would turn the cooking spit. The
Saint Bernard Pass had become popular again by then, and
the dogs helped feed the 20,000 travelers that passed through
each year. There are other mentioning of the Saint Bernards
in later passages, including that a dog was lost in a blizzard
and a bill for the repair of a dog collar.
All writings
about the dogs mention their large size. Dogs then were
relatively smaller than they are today,
so the Saint Bernards of the past were probably much smaller.
The coloration of their coats has always been stated as
white with red-brown patches. Dogs of this coloration are
very common in Switzerland, hence the saying “there
is more of something than red dogs.”
The monks soon began using the Saint Bernards to rescue
people trapped in the cold Alpine wilderness. The shaggy
dense coat of the Saint Bernard protects it from the cold
and allows it to spend large amounts of time in severe
conditions. The Saint Bernards also have a keen instinct
for predicting bad weather, like snowstorms and avalanches,
which was very useful to the monks.
The first mention of the Saint Bernards being used rescuing
is not mentioned in writing until 1750, although it likely
began before then. The dogs first began working with
the mountain guides who led people across the Saint Bernard
Pass. The dogs had an incredible sense of direction during
the heavy snows and helped guide travelers to the safety
of the monastery. It was not until later that excursions
of the dogs alone are mentioned. The infamous barrel
attached to the collar of the legendary Saint Bernard
is only a legend; barrels filled with alcoholic beverages
were an invention of storytellers.
Saint Bernards are divided into two categories, both of
notable size. The short hair variety has a thinner smooth
coat and are also known by the name of Stockhaar. The other
variety is the long hair, the most common of the two. Both
divisions of Saint Bernards have thick muscular bodies
and are generally sturdy hardy animals. Saint Bernards
have very large heads and are prone to drooling due to
their large saggy lips.
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