Hannah is a Bernese Mountain Dog who we adopted from a shelter outside of Atlanta, Georgia at 5 ½ years of age in October 2006. Don’t be surprised if you never even see Hannah, as she is very shy and is most happy under the desk in our office.
The distant origins of the Bernese Mountain Dog are not well documented. The breed apparently had its origins in the mastiff type dogs brought by the Romans when they came into Switzerland around two thousand years ago. The Roman dogs were used to guard and drive herds brought with the invaders.
Over the centuries, since Roman times, these dogs remained as general-purpose farmers’ dogs, but little attention was paid to preserving the type or developing the breed. Indeed, near the end of the 19th century, the breed was nearly extinct.
Fortunately, around the turn of the century, several Swiss dog fanciers realized that ignoring the many good qualities of the old native breeds would be a mistake. These pioneers brought Bernese from various isolated valleys in their home canton of Bern, and promoted the general interest in these dogs. The breed was originally called the Schweizerische Dürrbach-Klub; after the name of the hamlet and of the inn of Dürrbach, Switzerland where the dog was first developed.
