Bernese Mountain Dog vs Saint Bernard

By the Riverside Berner Guide editorial team
Last updated November 7, 2026

In the Bernese Mountain Dog vs Saint Bernard match-up, the Saint is the bigger, heavier and droolier dog, while the Berner is smaller, always tricolored and bred to have a dry mouth. Both are gentle Swiss working breeds with short lifespans, and both need the same core health screening. The right pick depends on how much size, drool and hair your home can take.

Both breeds come from the Swiss Alps, and both sit in AKC’s Working Group. This guide compares them point by point, using the AKC breed standards, the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America (BMDCA) and other official sources. For the full picture of the Berner alone, start with our complete Bernese Mountain Dog breed guide.

Bernese Mountain Dog vs Saint Bernard at a glance

Here are the headline numbers. Heights come from each breed’s AKC standard, and weights from AKC’s breed weight chart.

Sources: the Berner standard, the Saint Bernard standard, the AKC weight chart, the BMDCA FAQ, a 2024 Scientific Reports study and AKC’s 2025 rankings.

Size: how much bigger is a Saint?

A Saint Bernard starts where a Berner tops out. The AKC Saint Bernard standard gives only minimum heights: 27½ inches for males and 25½ inches for females. The Berner standard asks for 25 to 27½ inches in males and 23 to 26 inches in females.

The weight gap is bigger still. AKC’s weight chart lists 120 to 180 pounds for Saints and 70 to 115 pounds for Berners. The BMDCA’s FAQ sheet narrows the Berner range by sex: about 80 to 115 pounds for males and 70 to 95 pounds for females.

Saints also grow fast. The Saint Bernard Club of America’s owner flier, hosted by AKC, says puppies often near 100 pounds by 6 months old. For the Berner’s growth and adult size in detail, see our Bernese size and weight guide.

Coat, color and grooming

This is the easiest way to tell the two apart. The Berner standard describes one coat: thick, moderately long and straight or slightly wavy. The color is always a jet-black base with rust and white markings, and any other base color is a disqualification.

The Saint Bernard standard covers two varieties. The short-haired Saint has a very dense, smooth coat, and the long-haired Saint has medium-length hair that’s plain to slightly wavy. Colors run from white with red to red with white, and the standard requires white on the chest, feet and tail tip.

The long coat has a story. The club’s flier says monks crossed in long-haired dogs after harsh winters in 1816 to 1818, but snow and ice built up in the long hair, so long-haired puppies were sent to the valleys. Long-haired puppies still turn up in litters today.

Plan on hair either way: the BMDCA calls the Berner a double-coated breed whose shedding is considerable, with daily sweeping needed for much of the year. The Saint Bernard club says both of its coat types shed and need regular baths and grooming. Our guide to Bernese colors and markings shows what a standard Berner coat looks like.

Drool: the biggest day-to-day difference

If drool bothers you, this section may decide things. The Berner standard calls the breed dry-mouthed, with only slightly developed flews (the loose upper lips). The Saint Bernard standard calls for strongly developed upper flews that hang slightly.

That shape matters. AKC’s article on dog drooling names the Saint Bernard among breeds where drool is common, because the lips can’t hold all the saliva the dog makes. The Saint Bernard club’s flier is blunt: no Saint has a fully dry mouth.

Don’t assume every Berner is drool-free, though. The BMDCA says not all Berners are dry-mouthed, and dogs with loose, hanging lips tend to be sloppier. Look at both parents’ lips before you choose a puppy.

Temperament and family life

Both breeds have gentle reputations. AKC’s Saint Bernard page describes Saints as watchful, patient and careful with children. Its Working Group overview calls them remarkably powerful yet patient and kind.

AKC’s Bernese page calls Berners sweet, affectionate, generally placid and eager to please. The Berner standard asks for a self-confident, alert, good-natured dog that may stay aloof with strangers. The BMDCA says adults are generally gentle and easygoing, but the breed can be slow to mature and young dogs can be very active.

Size changes how gentle plays out, and the Saint Bernard club’s flier says puppies must learn early not to jump on people or knock into small children. The BMDCA warns that a Berner is not an automatic choice for a family with small kids. Read more in Bernese temperament and personality and are Bernese good with kids?

Exercise, training and space

Neither breed is a couch-only dog, but neither is a marathon runner. The BMDCA says a daily minimum of 30 minutes of moderately vigorous exercise, plus several trips outside, is enough for some Berners, while others need much more. It also says Berners do poorly in hot, humid weather; see keeping a Berner cool.

The Saint Bernard club’s flier advises not forcing exercise until a Saint reaches adult size. It recommends a fenced yard, a leash on walks and basic obedience training as a must. We found no official source giving a daily exercise figure for adult Saints, so ask your vet what suits your dog.

Training matters more as size goes up. The club warns not to let a puppy do anything it won’t be allowed to do at 150 pounds. The BMDCA asks Berner owners to use only positive training methods, because many Berners are sensitive.

The Saint Bernard club also says plainly that the breed isn’t for everyone, citing drool, hair, large amounts of food and the space a Saint takes up. The BMDCA says an adult Berner eats about four cups of a premium food a day on average; we found no matching figure for Saints. Our cost of owning a Bernese guide covers the ongoing budget.

Health tests to ask a breeder about

Both national breed clubs ask for similar screening. AKC’s Working Group health testing page lists each club’s recommended tests:

• Bernese Mountain Dog: hip and elbow evaluations, a cardiac exam, an eye exam by a veterinary ophthalmologist, two DNA tests for degenerative myelopathy (the Bernese variant and the common variant) and an AKC DNA profile.
• Saint Bernard: hip and elbow evaluations, a cardiac exam, an eye exam by a veterinary ophthalmologist and a DNA test for degenerative myelopathy (common variant).

The BMDCA’s Berner Recommended Testing program asks for hips, elbows, eyes, heart and DM as a minimum, plus one optional test: von Willebrand disease, thyroid or the histiocytic sarcoma risk test. The club notes that completing the tests isn’t the same as passing them. Our guide to Bernese health clearances shows how to read the results.

Conditions to know about

The BMDCA FAQ lists the Berner’s common problems: cancer, hip and elbow dysplasia, other joint issues, bloat, eye diseases, autoimmune diseases, hypothyroidism and degenerative myelopathy. See our guide to Bernese health problems for each one.

Bloat matters for Saints too: the American College of Veterinary Surgeons names St. Bernards among the breeds most often seen with gastric dilatation-volvulus, a twisted stomach, and lists deep-chested dogs as higher risk. Early signs include an anxious look, a swelling belly and retching that brings nothing up; treat any of these as an emergency and call your vet right away.

Lifespan: both breeds are short-lived

The BMDCA confirms that Berners typically live only 7 to 8 years. Some live past 10, and cancer is the most common cause of death before age 7.

For Saints, the best figure we found comes from a 2024 study in Scientific Reports of 584,734 dogs in the UK. It found a median lifespan of 9.3 years for Saint Bernards, against 12.5 years for all dogs in the study. The study didn’t report a Berner median we could use, and UK figures may not match US dogs.

Those two numbers come from different methods, so don’t read too much into the gap. What’s clear is that both are short-lived breeds. Our guide to Bernese lifespan explains why, and what may help.

Two Swiss working histories

The breeds share a homeland but not a job. The BMDCA says the Berner is named for the Canton of Bern and worked as a general farm dog: driving cattle, pulling carts to market and watching the farm. AKC’s history article says AKC recognized the breed in 1937.

The Saint is famous for rescue. AKC’s Working Group overview says hospice monks used the dogs as early as 1050 to find travelers buried by snow and avalanches in the Alpine passes. Over the next centuries, the dogs also guarded, herded and pulled loads on valley farms and Alpine dairies.

AKC’s Saint Bernard history says the most famous hospice dog, Barry, worked from 1800 to 1814 and is credited with saving 40 lives, and that the famous brandy barrel was never real; it came from an 1820 painting. AKC’s Berner history adds that as farm work for Berners faded, the Saint Bernard became known as the Swiss national breed. For more on the Berner’s past, read Bernese history and working roots.

Saint Bernard or Bernese Mountain Dog: which fits your home?

Neither breed suits every family, so be honest about your space, budget and tolerance for mess. These points sum up the differences the sources support:

• Choose a Berner if you want a large dog that’s a bit more manageable in size, a mostly dry mouth and one predictable tricolor coat.
• Choose a Saint if you have room for a dog that can top 150 pounds, don’t mind drool and want a patient giant with a famous rescue history.
• Either way, budget for big-dog vet bills, insist on health-tested parents and expect a short life together.

Berners are also easier to find: AKC’s 2025 rankings put the Bernese 20th and the Saint Bernard 63rd of 202 breeds. If you’re weighing other Swiss breeds too, compare the Berner with its closest cousin in Bernese vs Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.