The Saint Bernard is an old breed of Swiss origin used for three centuries of rescue work at the famous Hospice in the Swiss Alps. They are credited with saving thousands of lives. The dogs' highly developed sense of smell made them ideal for locating people lost during snowstorms. (More info at AKC's website here)

Shown here is Family Favorites, a sweet print by famed Victorian artist Arthur Elsley. I have both framed and unframed versions of this 16"x20" print available here.

My grandparents raised these big dogs, so my early childhood memories always included having lots of puppies to play with. My grandma kept all the correspondence with the owners of their puppies, and in going through the boxes of pedigrees, letters and photographs, I came upon some documents that surprised me - my grandmother's advertising copy. In spite of a college degree in marketing, I have written promotional copy badly for many years, and somewhat better (hopefully) for the last few... Grandma is a rural Indiana farm woman; she raised 3 children, ran a small dairy on their farm, and nurtured up countless baby orphans of all species. The promotional copy she wrote nearly 45 years ago - for the purebred Saint Bernard puppies they had for sale is informative, confident and sincere. With no formal training she wrote with a high level of polish and professionalism - something that I have worked on for over half my life, and still struggle with.

Here's a snippet from a letter sent to purchasers of her puppies:

(this is great advice for anyone showing dogs or horses! Way to go, Grandma!)

With all that said, the Saint Bernard is not a breed for everyone. They slobber, shed, and need good training and socialization. They're described as "...willful, stubborn and independent animals who sometimes listen and other times do not." (more here) As you can imagine, 150+ pounds of "doesn't listen" often lands these dogs in shelters. One of my favorite rescue groups that I follow on Facebook is Big Fluffy Dog Rescue. At first blush, the name is, well, "fluffy" and doesn't sound very serious. However, these folks really have their act together. They are working with placing huge breeds (Great Pyrenees, Saint Bernards, Newfoundlands and their mixes) in good homes. This may be a 200 pound dog that can (and will) drag a person or barge over them because no one ever taught them not to. With all that hair can also come skin problems. Super size skin problems. And scary sounding orthopedic issues with names like luxating patellas... You get the idea. They tackle these issues full steam ahead and keep their eyes on the goal - and they are having success - as evidenced by the 31,000+ fans supporting them.

Anyway, even if you're not in the market for a Big Fluffy Dog, you'll enjoy the "resumes" of the available dogs on their Facebook page. The admins for the page do an excellent job of marketing these dogs in an informative, truthful, and entertaining way.