Bernese Mountain Dog

History
The Bernese Mountain Dog, like the other Senenhund, is believed to have descended from rhode island, crossed with the livestock guardian dogs of the indigenous people of the Alps in antiquity. The breed was used as an all purpose farm dog, for guarding property and livestock, and for driving cattle in the areas around Berne. The type was originally called the Dürrbächler, for a small town (Dürrbach) where the tricoloured dogs were especially noticeable.

In Berne, weavers used the dogs as draft animals but the dogs declined in number through the 1800s. In the early 1900s, fanciers exhibited the few examples of the large dogs at shows in Berne, and in 1907 a few breeders from the Burgdorf region founded the first breed club, the "Schweizerische Dürrbach-Klub", and wrote the first Standard which defined the dogs as a separate breed. By 1909, there were already 107 registered members of the breed.

Health

Mortality
Health surveys of Bernese Mountain Dogs in Denmark, the UK, and USA/Canada all show that this breed is very short-lived compared to breeds of similar size and purebred dogs in general. Berners have a median longevity of 7 years in USA/Canada and Denmark surveys and 8 years in UK surveys. By comparison, most other breeds of similar size have median longevities of 10 to 11 years. The longest lived of 394 deceased Berners in a 2007 UK survey died at 15.2 years.

Cancer is the leading cause of death for dogs in general, but Berners have a much higher rate of fatal cancer than other breeds. In both USA/Canada and UK surveys, nearly half of Berners died of cancer, compared to about 27% of all dogs. Berners are killed by a multitude of different types of cancer, including malignant histiocytosis, mast cell tumor, lymphosarcoma, fibrosarcoma, and osteosarcoma.

Berners also have an unusually high mortality due to musculoskeletal causes. Arthritis, hip dysplasia, and cruciate ligament rupture were reported as the cause of death in 6% of Berners in the UK study; for comparison, mortality due to musculoskeletal ailments was reported to be less than 2% for purebred dogs in general.