High in the mountains between Switzerland and Italy there's a snowy pass with a hospice at the top, where monks have looked after travellers for hundreds of years. The breed is named after this place, the Great Saint Bernard Pass. The monks trained their big, strong dogs to find people lost in the snow, and one dog named Barry is said to have saved more than 40 lives in the early 1800s.
You've probably seen pictures of a Saint Bernard with a little barrel around its neck. That actually came from a painting, not real life! The monks' dogs never carried barrels, but the idea was so charming that it stuck.
Saint Bernards are white with big patches of reddish brown, and many have a dark mask around the eyes and ears. Leave the white stripe down the middle of the face, the muzzle and the chest bare, then fill in the patches with warm browns. Their droopy cheeks and thick fur look great with a few darker strokes underneath, and a snowy mountain makes the perfect background.
