- Jet black main colour with rich tan markings on the cheeks, above the eyes, on all four legs and on the chest, and with white markings as follows: • Clean white symmetrical markings on the head : blaze extending towards the nose on both sides to a muzzle band
- Permissible: the blaze should not reach the tan markings above the eyes, and the white muzzle band should not extend beyond the corners of the mouth. • Moderately broad, unbroken white marking on throat and chest. • Desirable: white feet, white tip of tail. • Tolerated: small white patch on nape of neck, small white anal patch
About the Bernese Mountain Dog
Origin: Switzerland
- Typical life span
- 7-10 years
- Size
- Large — from its typical weight
- Weight
- Male
- 36-52 kg
- Female
- 32-43 kg
- Height
- Male
- 64-70 cm
- Female
- 58-66 cm
- FCI status
- Recognised by FCI
- FCI group
- Pinscher and Schnauzer - Molossoid and Swiss Mountain and Cattledogs
- Origin
- Switzerland
- Also called
- Boyero de Montana Bernes
- Known hereditary risks
- 5 documented conditions, with the test for each
About
What is a Bernese Mountain Dog?
Large, strong, and sturdy working dog with a distinctive long tricolored coat and calm, gentle temperament. One of four types of Swiss Mountain Dogs, known for being good-natured, loyal, and an excellent family companion.
Bernese Mountain Dog history and origins
One of four types of Swiss Mountain Dogs originating in the canton of Bern. Served as all-purpose farm dogs for droving cattle, pulling carts to market, and watchdogs. Nearly extinct by early 1900s but revived through careful breeding programs
Bernese Mountain Dog appearance and size
Males typically weigh 36-52 kg and stand 64-70 cm at the shoulder; females 32-43 kg and 58-66 cm.
What the breed standard says
- Bred for
- Originally used as a guard-, draught-and cattle dog on farms in the Canton Bern, today also family dog and versatile working dog
- Behaviour and temperament
“Self-confident, attentive, vigilant, fearless in everyday situations; good-natured and devoted to his own people, self-assured and placid towards strangers; of medium temperament, docile”
Quoted from FCI standard n°45. It describes the breed the registry recognises, not any individual animal.
Breed reference from The Dog API.
Characteristics
- Size
- Large
- Exercise needs
- —
- Easy to train
- —
- Amount of shedding
- —
- Grooming needs
- 4 of 5
- Good with children
- —
- Cost to keep
- —
- Tolerates being alone
- —
- Intelligence
- —
- Health of breed
- 5 conditions documented
Pros & cons
Pros & cons for the Bernese Mountain Dog
What you get with the Bernese Mountain Dog
- Purpose stated in the standard: “Originally used as a guard-, draught-and cattle dog on farms in the Canton Bern, today also family dog and versatile working dog”
- The standard describes the breed as: “Self-confident, attentive, vigilant, fearless in everyday situations”
What you are taking on
- 4 serious inherited conditions are documented, mainly in heart & circulation and bones & joints. The health guide tab has the test to ask for on each.
- High grooming needs — the standard’s own description is “Long, shining, straight or slightly wavy”
- Shorter-lived than a crossbred dog — median 10.1 years across 1071 animals, against 12
Drawn from sources rather than written as an opinion — cited health research, the registry’s own standard, and peer-reviewed longevity. FCI breed standard; Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America — Recommended Testing; McMillan et al. 2024, median age at death. One breeder’s animals can differ from any of it, and an empty column means we hold nothing for that side rather than that there is nothing to say.
Characteristics
FCI standard · Bernese Mountain Dog
Coat and colour
As the FCI standard sets it out. Every line below is the standard’s own wording, tagged permissible.
Coat
- Long
- Shining
- Straight or slightly wavy
Colour
- Preferred
- Permissible
- Undesirable
- Disqualifying
Preferred, permissible, undesirable and disqualifying are FCI’s own words about the breed. They describe what the standard asks for — not an assessment of any individual dog, and not ours.
Shortened from FCI standard n°45 — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source.
Breed-level information from The Dog API. It describes the Bernese Mountain Dog in general; any individual animal can differ.
Health guide
Health & screening guide for the Bernese Mountain Dog
Known hereditary risks for the Bernese Mountain Dog breed, and the specific documentation to request from any breeder before paying a deposit. A responsible breeder will have these readily available; deflection is a red flag.
5 conditions documentedThis is breed-level literature, not veterinary advice about an individual animal — your vet knows the animal.
Health checklist (PDF)Heart & circulation
Cardiac disease
Serious
Congenital and acquired heart disease is part of the breed's own minimum testing panel; early disease often shows no outward signs.
What to ask for
Cardiac evaluation (congenital, advanced or basic) by a board-certified cardiologist, on both parents
Bones & joints
Hip and elbow dysplasia
Serious
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.
What to ask for
OFA hip evaluation (or PennHIP) and OFA elbow evaluation, on both parents, under the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America's CHIC/BRT programmes
Brain & nerves
Degenerative myelopathy
Serious
A progressive, incurable disease of the spinal cord causing hind-limb weakness and eventual paralysis, usually from around eight years old onward.
What to ask for
Degenerative myelopathy (SOD1) DNA test, on both parents — required by the breed club since December 2017
Blood
Von Willebrand's disease
Monitor
An inherited bleeding disorder that is usually mild but matters if a dog needs surgery.
What to ask for
DNA-based von Willebrand's Disease test (optional but recommended), on both parents
Cancer
Histiocytic sarcoma
Serious
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.
What to ask for
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.
How long the Bernese Mountain Dog lives, in the records
Median survival 10,1 years
95% confidence interval 9,8–10,4 years, from 449 recorded deaths among 1071 dogs
Mortality hazard 1.42 (1.3, 1.56) relative to crossbred dogs, whose median is 12,0 years.
Measured in the United Kingdom from 584.734 dogs. Median survival is not a prediction for an individual dog.
McMillan, K.M., Bielby, J., Williams, C.L., Upjohn, M.M., Casey, R.A. & Christley, R.M. (2024) Longevity of companion dog breeds: those at risk from early death. Scientific Reports 14, 531.
Gallery
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Puppies
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