KENNEL NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 30 July 1937, Page 3

KENNEL NOTES

THE ST. BERNARD. (By “Fancier.”) The origin of the St. Bernard is shrouded in more mystery than that of perhaps any other breed. Many, and sometimes wonderful, are the theories which from time to time liaye been put forward, each, as a rule, in direct contradiction of its predecessors. I r i he belief prevalent before the Great War, and in some quarters much later, was that the dogs were actually instituted by Saint Bernard himself in the famous Hospice of his foundation. This would mean that the breed has been in existence since the eleventh century. The tale is further embellished with the information that until the early nineteenth century all the animals were smooth-coated ; that a series of avalanches thereupon reduced the numbers to a solitary bitch ; that this bitch was mated to a Newfoundland, from which mating the entirety of the present St. Bernard breed lias descended. In triumphant defence of this somewhat startling theory its supporters used to point to a picture of the Saint, complete with dog, resplendent upon the hospice wall. This picture, however (quite apart from the fact that the animal depicted it in might be anything from a bloodhound to a mastiff) was not presented to the Canons until 1870, and even then was admitted to be quite recent. Moreover, as no biographies of St. Bernard, no matter what their date, mentioned such dogs, the artist seems to have little excuse, beyond a pardonable susceptibility to romance, for having inserted the alleged St. Bernard dog in his portrait. Other accounts of the St. Bernard’s origin are a s follow: That the smooths sprang from the medieval Alaunt, or Spanish mastiff. and the roughs from the Almizzi sheep-dog; that Spanish mastiffs. judiciously crossed by the monks, were responsible for both varieties; that the Cliien de Berger, mated with the Matin, was responsible ; that the St. Bernard was the domesticated dog of the -Swiss Lake dwellings; that the Romans imported it from Tibet; that the Teutons brought it with them from the arid fastnesses of Asia, having bred it from the Tibetan mastiff. The theory held to-day is one which only years of painstaking research in many lands has been able to establish ; and. appropriately enough, it seems to have been established first in Switzerland. It is that the St. Bernard in the beginning was an offshoot of the Swiss Stennenhund. A recent prior (himself an enthusiast in research) told an English author that lie did not believe the dogs were associated with the hospice earlier than the mid-seventeenth century. It is but natural that the monks, having once decided to use dogs, should have begun with those near at hand —animals which could already climb rocks and stand the mountain winters. Such dogs were the Sennenhunde. It is also natural that a wish should have arisen to increase the breed’s size and strength. That this was speedily done is known from the writings of several eighteenth century travellers and others who commented on the size of the dogs to be seen at the hospice. As with the origin, so with the crossings, there has been much diversity of opinion amongst the eminent concerning which admixtures were employed. It is tairly certain that the animal used to give the great size so early remarked upon was the Great Dane, “Danische Douge.” This cross must have been effected at least as early as the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The next necessity ' for crossing arose in the early years of the following century, when distemper, and the series of avalanches already mentioned, destroyed if-not all, at any rate all lint a very tew, obthe hospice dogs. This time it appears that new blood was introduced from two quarters: From the Newfoundland and from the Pvrenean. There is still some doubt about when the Pyrenean was first employed, but probably it was in the opening decade or two of the century, in which case it was prior to the employment of the Newfoundland, as the latter was not associated with the St. Bernard until the eighteenthirties. The matter is not made clearer by the considerable resemblance at that date of all three breeds prior to crossing, nor by the fact that the Pyrenean was also used to improve the Newfoundland. As far as these two types of St. Bernard are concerned, it is now generally conceded, despite a iornter belief .that the Newfoundland was responsible lor the rough variety, that roughs and ' smooths have existed alongside ever since the smooth “Danische Dogge” was first used to improve the rough Sennenlnind. A point not so generally conceded is that the St. Bernard’s conspicuous jaw, the wrinkle and the pendulous lips, are due to an iniusion of bloodhound stock. Some writers affirm this unequivocally, others as unequivocally deny it. Few, even of those who most favoV the contention, seem to have much to record in the way of dates and places; though against this vagueness must be set the undeniable bloodhounrd characteristics of the St ; Bernard ‘ which seem at times hardly to call for corroborative evidence. A final crossing, pretty well authenticated, is that of the mastiff. Indeed, the St. Bernard itself was originally known as the Alpine mastiff. . , At the end of the nineteenth century the breed was falling off badly, and' some outside blood was definitely introduced; the famous Bowden kennels used the English mastiff as an outcross. An account of a St. Bernard brought to England in 1815 gives the measurements as: Length, Gft. 4in.; height in middle, 2ft. 7in.; and as this was a youngster and still growing he was well up to size. The account is marred somewhat by a further reference to the dog carrying one hundredweight over the snow a distance of 18 miles. • A good St. Bernard should weigh from 170 to 2101 b, and an ill-temper is a disqualification. In 1933 a band of monks set out from Switzerland for the Tibetan Himalayas equipped with St. Bernards to establish a hospice in that lonely land 13.000 feet above sea level. r l lierc is romance vet for the St. Bernard.

LOCAL CLUB NOTES. At a recent meeting of the Kennel Club it was decided to endeavour to arrange a parade to be held at Tedding shortly. The dub will conduct the parade, and the innovation is hoped to be of mutual benefit to I‘eildiug and Palmerston North enthusiasts.