Bernese Mountain Dog — questions to ask before paying a deposit
A responsible breeder will have these readily available. Deflection is a red flag.
Hip and elbow dysplasiacan shorten life or cause chronic pain
Malformation of the hip and/or elbow joints causing pain, lameness and early arthritis. OFA's own published statistics have long placed this breed among those with the highest rates of hip dysplasia it tracks.
Ask to see: OFA hip evaluation (or PennHIP) and OFA elbow evaluation, on both parents, under the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America's CHIC/BRT programmes
Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America — Recommended Testing (https://www.bmdca.org/recommended-testing) · OFA — Hip Dysplasia (https://ofa.org/diseases/hip-dysplasia)
Cardiac diseasecan shorten life or cause chronic pain
Congenital and acquired heart disease is part of the breed's own minimum testing panel; early disease often shows no outward signs.
Ask to see: Cardiac evaluation (congenital, advanced or basic) by a board-certified cardiologist, on both parents
Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America — Recommended Testing (https://www.bmdca.org/recommended-testing)
Degenerative myelopathycan shorten life or cause chronic pain
A progressive, incurable disease of the spinal cord causing hind-limb weakness and eventual paralysis, usually from around eight years old onward.
Ask to see: Degenerative myelopathy (SOD1) DNA test, on both parents — required by the breed club since December 2017
Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America — Recommended Testing (https://www.bmdca.org/recommended-testing)
Histiocytic sarcomacan shorten life or cause chronic pain
An aggressive cancer of white blood cells that is dramatically over-represented in this breed: peer-reviewed studies put lifetime incidence at roughly a quarter of all Bernese Mountain Dogs, against well under 1% in dogs generally, and it accounts for around half of the breed's own unusually high (about 50%) overall cancer rate. Genome-wide studies have found real risk regions (near MTAP/CDKN2A, and a breed-specific FANCG variant), confirming a heritable component, but median survival after diagnosis is measured in weeks.
Ask to see: There is no diagnostic genetic test. A commercial risk-marker 'pre-test' (Antagene, France) scores nine markers across five chromosomes and sorts dogs into three relative-risk bands, but its own documentation states this is a risk estimate only and cannot predict whether an individual dog will develop the disease, because the condition is polygenic with no single causal mutation. Ask a breeder for the cause of death of grandparents and great-grandparents in the line — this is the single most useful thing to know about a Bernese pedigree.
Risk Factors Associated with Development of Histiocytic Sarcoma in Bernese Mountain Dogs (PMC) (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5084741/) · Epidemiology, pathology, and genetics of histiocytic sarcoma in the Bernese mountain dog breed (PubMed) (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19531730/) · BMDCA — Histiocytic Sarcoma Risk Test / Antagene Histio Pre-Test (https://www.bmdca.org/histiocytic-sarcoma-risk-test)
Von Willebrand's disease
An inherited bleeding disorder that is usually mild but matters if a dog needs surgery.
Ask to see: DNA-based von Willebrand's Disease test (optional but recommended), on both parents
Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America — Recommended Testing (https://www.bmdca.org/recommended-testing)