When Isaac Schiess imported a pair of Berner Sennenhunde from Switzerland in 1926, he tried to get them registered with the AKC but got nowhere.

Now Isaac was made of tough stock. A Kansas farmer who’d faced brutal winters, droughts, and/or sick animals,  Isaac wasn’t going to let a little thing like a rebuff from the AKC deter him. He registered his dog and bitch with the Swiss Kennel Club under the kennel name, “Clover Leaf,” then tried again later after the pair had produced a litter.

It was a “no go,” the AKC still refused to register them. It took another ten years before the AKC accepted the breed, but it wasn’t Isaac’s dogs that breached the wall, nor was name by which Isaac knew the breed – Berner Sennenhunde – kept.

The name chosen for the breed in the United States was in line with what England had done, and it wasn’t a literal translation of Berner Sennenhund which literally means Bernese Alpine Herdsman’s Dog. Thought to be too much of a mouthful, the name chosen was Bernese Mountain Dog. The breed had also been known by other names such as “Dürrbächler” for the hamlet of Dürrbach.

The registry may not have kept the name, but in 1937, the AKC did accept the standard that was derived from the Swiss standard.

Photo by Brittany Anderberg Oswin