A 350‑pound buck. A Louisiana farm. And two Bernese Mountain Dogs who refused to back down. True story?
Yes—though, like any good piece of history, it comes with a little fine print.
Many readers have seen the meme about two Berners who saved their owner from a massive deer. If it sounds improbable, it’s not. The story traces back through real names, real dates, and real dogs.
Bernese Mountain Dogs didn’t just burst onto the American scene in a single act of heroism. The first known imports arrived earlier, in 1926, when a Kansas farmer named Isaac Schliess brought Berners to the United States. His effort didn’t immediately lead to lasting recognition, but it planted the seed for the breed’s future here.
Fast‑forward ten years.
In 1936, a Louisiana farmer named Glen Shadow, living near Ruston, imported a pair of Bernese Mountain Dogs named Felix and Fridy. They weren’t the first Berners on American soil, but they would become some of the most influential, right on the eve of the breed’s formal recognition.
A few years after those dogs arrived, Glen Shadow was working on his farm when a full‑grown buck—estimated at about 350 pounds—suddenly attacked him and knocked him to the ground. This wasn’t a dramatic near‑miss. It was a full‑on, life‑threatening mauling.
That’s when the Berners did what Berners do.
Felix and Frances (a daughter of Fridy) charged the buck, seized it off their owner, and drove it away. Against a powerful wild animal with size and antlers on its side, they stood their ground and saved his life.
At roughly the same time that this real‑world drama was playing out on a Louisiana farm, the breed itself was stepping into the spotlight. In 1937, shortly after Shadow’s 1936 imports, the American Kennel Club officially recognized the Bernese Mountain Dog. Breed historians have long pointed to Shadow’s dogs as an important part of why the Berner finally took hold in the United States.
So where does that leave the meme?
The heart of the story is true: Glen Shadow in Louisiana, his Bernese Mountain Dogs—Felix and Frances—facing down a massive buck and protecting their owner, and AKC recognition following soon after. The details that get fuzzy are the suggestion that the rescue happened in 1936 specifically, when that’s the year of the importation, and the idea that Shadow’s dogs were literally the first Berners in America, rather than some of the most influential early ones. But the essence is spot‑on.
Before they were show dogs.
Before they were ink on registration papers.
Bernese Mountain Dogs were already out on the farm, doing exactly what they were bred to do:
Standing between their people and danger—without hesitation.
Photo by cheese_78 iStock