St Bernards are large brown dogs which usually have black and brown and white markings.
They were originally bred by Swiss monks who lived by the St Bernard pass in the mountains.
The dogs were mainly used by the monks to help locate and rescue travellers who often got lost in the snow and were sometimes even buried during storms.
Originally the dogs were only brown and white. Their black markings are due to the fact that they were cross bred with the Canadian Newfoundland. This might a first seem a very good idea as the Newfoundlands were used to the harsh Canadian winters and when crossed with the St Bernards they would have made excellent rescue dogs. However there was a problem because Newfoundlands have long hair while the first St Bernards had short hair. This led to the creation of two distinct breeds. The first was the shorthaired St Bernard, which had short fine coats while gaining all the good characteristics of the Newfoundlands. These dogs became great rescue dogs. Unfortunately some of the new dogs had long hair similar to the Newfoundlands this made them unsuitable for the Swiss weather because ice would form on their coats weighing them down and making them cool down very rapidly.
The shorthaired variety were kept by the monks while the longhaired dogs had to be given away as pets.