Local Mixed Dog

Learn about the Local Mixed Dog, an all-purpose farm dog known for guarding and driving cattle in alpine pastures.

The breed was used as an all-purpose farm dog for guarding property. It also helped to drive dairy cattle long distances from the farm to the alpine pastures. Additionally, the farmers used the dogs to transport their carts of milk and cheese. They were known by the locals as “Cheese Dogs.”[8] In the early 1900s, fanciers exhibited the few examples of the large dogs at shows in Berne. In 1907, a few breeders from the Burgdorf region founded the first breed club, the Schweizerische Dürrbach-Klub. They also wrote the first Standard which defined the dogs as a separate breed. By 1910, there were already 107 registered members of the breed. There is a photo of a working Bernese Mountain Dog, dated 1905 at the Fumee Fall rest area in Quinnesec, Michigan.