Saint Bernard

Calm and gentle, playful at home, watchful of strangers.
A Saint Bernard
Photo: Rafael Dominguez Rodriguez
Adult male
64–82 kg
140–180 lb
Adult female
54–64 kg
120–140 lb
Lifespan
9.3 yrs
Class · Companion
also Family

What it's like

In temperament it is calm, gentle and good-natured, playful with its household and watchful towards strangers without being quick to aggression. The brandy cask often shown around its neck owes more to a painting by Edwin Landseer than to hospice practice.

Day to day
Activity
Happy with modest walks
Intelligence
Easy-going, simple routines
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
A lap or leaning dog
Loyalty
Bonded to its family
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Hardy, takes a busy home in its stride
Voice
Quiet
Prey drive
Usually fine with small pets
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is a Saint Bernard right for you?
Take the breed matcher

Living with one

Most of the shedding comes when the seasons change. The grooming it needs depends on the coat. It needs a moderate amount of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Saint Bernard is a giant dog, about the weight of a grown Great Dane. Males end up clearly heavier than females. It is one of the heaviest giant breeds.

Bred to guard the hospice and find travellers in deep snow, it is a massive, powerfully built dog with a broad, heavy head, a short muzzle and a serious, kindly expression. The short coat is dense and close-lying; the long coat is straight to slightly wavy, with feathered legs and a bushy tail. Both are white with red patches or red with white, with white on the chest, feet and tail tip and darker shading around the eyes and ears.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Saint Bernard puppy is already as heavy as a grown Labrador. They grow fastest between 5 and 6 months old. They keep growing past their first birthday, longer than a Beagle does. The chart follows Saint Bernards themselves, not a general size band. Most males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
14 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight6
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
9.5–12.2 kg 20.9–26.9 lb
8.1–9.5 kg 17.9–20.9 lb
3 months
15.1–19.3 kg 33.3–42.5 lb
12.9–15.1 kg 28.4–33.3 lb
4 months
22.6–29.0 kg 49.8–63.9 lb
19.3–22.6 kg 42.5–49.8 lb
5 months
31.4–40.4 kg 69.2–89.1 lb
26.9–31.4 kg 59.3–69.2 lb
6 months
40.3–51.8 kg 88.8–114.2 lb
34.5–40.3 kg 76.1–88.8 lb
7 months
48.0–61.6 kg 105.8–135.8 lb
41.1–48.0 kg 90.6–105.8 lb
8 months
53.7–69.0 kg 118.4–152.1 lb
46.0–53.7 kg 101.4–118.4 lb
9 months
57.6–74.0 kg 127.0–163.1 lb
49.3–57.6 kg 108.7–127.0 lb
10 months
60.0–77.1 kg 132.3–170.0 lb
51.4–60.0 kg 113.3–132.3 lb
11 months
61.5–79.0 kg 135.6–174.2 lb
52.7–61.5 kg 116.2–135.6 lb
12 months
62.4–80.1 kg 137.6–176.6 lb
53.4–62.4 kg 117.7–137.6 lb
15 months
63.3–81.3 kg 139.6–179.2 lb
54.2–63.3 kg 119.5–139.6 lb

Health and lifespan

In vet records from the UK and North America, the conditions below turn up more often in Saint Bernards than in crossbreeds. Inward-rolling eyelid and outward-drooping eyelid stand out as far more likely. The most serious, lymph node cancer, can shorten a life and is more likely. These are figures for the breed as a whole, not a prediction for your dog.
Listed by likelihood level, highest first, then by how serious it is, then by name. These are 5 of 6 measured; lab-confirmed figures only fill places the vet-record studies leave empty.
  • Inward-rolling eyelid
    Far more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Outward-drooping eyelid
    Far more likely
    Impact: minor
  • Blood blister in the ear flap
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Cherry eye
    Much more likely
    Impact: moderate
  • Lymph node cancer
    More likely
    Impact: life-limiting

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Saint Bernard lived to about 9 and a half years, shorter than the typical giant breed.

Where it comes from

The Saint Bernard comes from the hospice on the Great St. Bernard Pass, where monks kept big dogs bred from the region's farm dogs, first as guards from the mid-1600s and soon as rescuers of travellers caught in snow and fog. Accounts of those rescues, some carried home by soldiers who crossed the pass with Napoleon's army in 1800, made the dogs known across Europe, and Switzerland regards the breed as its national dog4.

The Saint Bernard took its present name only in the nineteenth century; before that the hospice dogs went by several names, including Barry dogs, after a famous rescuer whose preserved body is displayed in the Natural History Museum in Bern. In the first half of that century the monks crossed their dogs with Newfoundlands, which is usually credited with introducing a long coat. Ice reportedly clung to the longer hair, so long-coated puppies were given away, and the breed spread among lowland breeders.

Breed standard

The Saint Bernard is judged against standard no. 61, in group 2, Pinscher and Schnauzer, Molossoid and Swiss Mountain Dogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Saint Bernard figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a giant breed is most likely at the late end.

Compare with related

Bernese Mountain Dog
Pinschers & molossoids · Large
Newfoundland
Pinschers & molossoids · Giant
Great Dane
Pinschers & molossoids · Giant
Mastiff
Pinschers & molossoids · Giant
Or compare the Saint Bernard with any breed you choose
Track your own Saint Bernard
Log a minute a day and watch them sit on these curves. Free.

Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·