I had when I was a pup.
I might have been a city dweller, living far away from the place where I was born and had lived most of my life, but I would always be a Dog at Home in the Snow.
APPENDIX
More About the Saint Bernard
History of the Saint Bernard
Today, dogs like the Saint Bernard and the Great Dane have been bred for size and have reached nearly monstrous proportions for a dog. We know from bones that in ancient times even “big” dogs were not much bigger than a German shepherd. When Roman soldiers crossed the Alps to conquer the people of northern Europe over 2,000 years ago, they left behind what were, for their times, big dogs. These dogs, which the Romans called Molossers (but which we know as mastiffs), had fought side by side with the Roman legions andwere pitted against lions in Rome’s Colosseum. Because these big dogs ate a great deal, only armies and wealthy people could afford to own them.
The Great Saint Bernard Hospice was founded in 1049. No one knows when dogs came to live there, since a fire in 1555 destroyed all records. But there is a painting of a rescue dog hanging on the hospice wall that was done in 1695. The first dogs were probably gifts to the Augustine clerics and the nonreligious workers, known as marronniers. The clerics and marronniers must have led a lonely life in the mountains, and the dogs were probably intended as companions.
But after the dogs settled in they proved their worth as good watchdogs and workers. They helped the clerics haul supplies from the town of Bourg-Saint-Pierre up the mountainside to the hospice. They carried milk and cheese packed on sleds or inpouches from the stable to the hospice. Most importantly, they showed a talent for guiding people through snow and fog and finding lost travelers. The hospice workers called the dogs
baris
(“little bears” in Swiss German) because of their burliness and their hardiness in the snow. The baris quickly became famous for their rescue work. Although the baris were shown in paintings and newspaper engravings wearing barrels of brandy strapped around their necks, the baris offered the warmth of their bodies, not liquid refreshment, to the travelers they rescued.
In the 1800s, Napoléon marched his army across the Alps. The dogs and hospice workers helped the soldiers as they struggled to haul their cannons over rocky crags and crevices. General Desaix, one of Napoléon’s favorite generals, so admired the bari dogs that when he died in battle,Napoléon had him buried at the hospice.
The dog known as Barry was born at the hospice in 1800, the year of Napoléon’s crossing. Barry distinguished himself by making more than forty rescues in snow and fog. Accounts of Barry’s exploits vary. Some accounts say that he saved closer to one hundred people. Stories tell how he saved a little girl in the cave instead of a boy. Or that he died when another boy he tried to rescue attacked him with a knife. Barry’s stuffed body can still be seen in the Natural History Museum in Bern. And there is a Barry monument at the dog cemetery near Paris.
Today, the Saint Bernard is no longer used for mountain rescue. German shepherds replaced Saint Bernards in the early 1900s, and German shepherds were, in turn, replaced by Belgian sheepdogs, Labrador retrievers, and flat-coated retrievers,all of whom have fewer problems with their hips. Highly trained search and rescue teams have replaced the clerics and marronniers of yesteryear.
In the 1850s, a Swiss man named Heinrich Schumacher so admired the alpine rescue dogs that he began to breed them. Working closely with the clerics, he was responsible for founding the breed as we know it today. He made a careful study of Saint Bernards. The more similar the dogs were to Barry, he felt, the more desirable they would be. But other breeders, feeling that the dogs could be improved if they had heavier coats, had, as early as the 1820s, begun to breed Saint Bernards with Newfoundlands. Heavier
I might have been a city dweller, living far away from the place where I was born and had lived most of my life, but I would always be a Dog at Home in the Snow.
APPENDIX
More About the Saint Bernard
History of the Saint Bernard
Today, dogs like the Saint Bernard and the Great Dane have been bred for size and have reached nearly monstrous proportions for a dog. We know from bones that in ancient times even “big” dogs were not much bigger than a German shepherd. When Roman soldiers crossed the Alps to conquer the people of northern Europe over 2,000 years ago, they left behind what were, for their times, big dogs. These dogs, which the Romans called Molossers (but which we know as mastiffs), had fought side by side with the Roman legions andwere pitted against lions in Rome’s Colosseum. Because these big dogs ate a great deal, only armies and wealthy people could afford to own them.
The Great Saint Bernard Hospice was founded in 1049. No one knows when dogs came to live there, since a fire in 1555 destroyed all records. But there is a painting of a rescue dog hanging on the hospice wall that was done in 1695. The first dogs were probably gifts to the Augustine clerics and the nonreligious workers, known as marronniers. The clerics and marronniers must have led a lonely life in the mountains, and the dogs were probably intended as companions.
But after the dogs settled in they proved their worth as good watchdogs and workers. They helped the clerics haul supplies from the town of Bourg-Saint-Pierre up the mountainside to the hospice. They carried milk and cheese packed on sleds or inpouches from the stable to the hospice. Most importantly, they showed a talent for guiding people through snow and fog and finding lost travelers. The hospice workers called the dogs
baris
(“little bears” in Swiss German) because of their burliness and their hardiness in the snow. The baris quickly became famous for their rescue work. Although the baris were shown in paintings and newspaper engravings wearing barrels of brandy strapped around their necks, the baris offered the warmth of their bodies, not liquid refreshment, to the travelers they rescued.
In the 1800s, Napoléon marched his army across the Alps. The dogs and hospice workers helped the soldiers as they struggled to haul their cannons over rocky crags and crevices. General Desaix, one of Napoléon’s favorite generals, so admired the bari dogs that when he died in battle,Napoléon had him buried at the hospice.
The dog known as Barry was born at the hospice in 1800, the year of Napoléon’s crossing. Barry distinguished himself by making more than forty rescues in snow and fog. Accounts of Barry’s exploits vary. Some accounts say that he saved closer to one hundred people. Stories tell how he saved a little girl in the cave instead of a boy. Or that he died when another boy he tried to rescue attacked him with a knife. Barry’s stuffed body can still be seen in the Natural History Museum in Bern. And there is a Barry monument at the dog cemetery near Paris.
Today, the Saint Bernard is no longer used for mountain rescue. German shepherds replaced Saint Bernards in the early 1900s, and German shepherds were, in turn, replaced by Belgian sheepdogs, Labrador retrievers, and flat-coated retrievers,all of whom have fewer problems with their hips. Highly trained search and rescue teams have replaced the clerics and marronniers of yesteryear.
In the 1850s, a Swiss man named Heinrich Schumacher so admired the alpine rescue dogs that he began to breed them. Working closely with the clerics, he was responsible for founding the breed as we know it today. He made a careful study of Saint Bernards. The more similar the dogs were to Barry, he felt, the more desirable they would be. But other breeders, feeling that the dogs could be improved if they had heavier coats, had, as early as the 1820s, begun to breed Saint Bernards with Newfoundlands. Heavier
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