The largest of the four Swiss mountain dogs is the Grosser Schweizer Sennhund, or Greater Swiss Mountain Dog (“Swissy,” to his close confidents). It’s a breed we almost lost forever when industrialization and mechanization replaced many animals that had pulled and carted items to market. Had it not been for a show judge, Dr. Albert Heim, who evaluated the lone entry at a dog show in Langenthal in 1908 and urged breeders to save the Swissy, one of the world’s most beloved dogs would be lost to us.
Happily, breeders took heed and with concentrated effort, rescued the Alpine herdsdog from extinction. The breed was officially recognized in 1910 by the Swiss Kennel Club, and a club formed to protect it soon after.
A couple of midwestern chaps were responsible for bringing the breed in the United States: J. Frederick Hoffman of Indiana, and Perrin G. Rademacher of Illinois. Hoffman first saw the breed at a European dog show in 1967 and came home gushing about it. He gathered together a group of fanciers to shoulder the responsibility of introducing Swissies to America, and in 1968, he and Rademacher acquired four puppies who became ambassadors of their breed. Not surprisingly, the breed quickly gained fans, and in early 1947, there were over 40 Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs listed in the US studbook. While this may not seem like much, one must realized that the time, it was estimated that in the entire world, there were fewer than a thousand of these dogs. We don’t really know what the world population is today, let alone the figures for breed numbers in the United States. What we do know is that the breed is much loved.
Image of a Swissy is entitled, “Beauty from the Swiss Alps” by Randy Son Of Robert and shared under a CC BY 2.0 license. Of this photo, the photographer writes: “”My dog’s not spoiled … I’m just well trained !” The female Greater Swiss Mountain Dog gets up to 130 lbs. That is nearly 7 times the weight of Yoshi (about 20 lbs). My good friend Tom owns this beauty named Hannah. I hit it off with her and by the end of the night was ready to bring Yoshi home a pal. Sadly, Tom was not ready to part with her.”