If you ever saw the normal St. Bernards, you would be shocked by the title of this article “Mini St. Bernards: Everything You Could Want To Know”. Nobody can expect that a very large (almost huge dog) can be bred down to a small dog (weighs about 25-50 pounds). However, St. Bernard is a sweet dog, beautiful and very loyal but also very stubborn that requires a professional person to deal with him. So how will be the Mini St. Bernard breed?
“Mini St. Bernards are the small-sized dog in the St. Bernards breed, typically between 15 – 20 inches. Mini Rottweilers often live between 8 – 10 years. These dogs are loyal, funny and yet extremely stubborn”
When we talk about Mini Dogs, we’re actually addressing toy dogs who are known to have hard characters and hard to be trained. Who are known to be aggressive while weak that they can’t bite any thief. We always said that Mini Dogs have the same personality as a Rottweiler which doesn’t go well with their size, so how will be the Mini St. Bernard who is known to be very stubborn!?
Disclaimer
In this article Mini St. Bernards: Everything You Could Want to Know, we don’t give a quick overview of Mini St. Bernards, instead, we go through a step by step guide and cover everything you would want to know about Mini St. Bernard so you could have the complete image.
History of St. Bernards
By looking at Wikipedia, the history of the large St. Bernard breed is:
The St. Bernard or St Bernard is a breed of very large working dog from the western Alps in Italy and Switzerland.[2] They were originally bred for rescue by the hospice of the Great St Bernard Pass on the Italian-Swiss border.[3][4] The hospice, built by and named after Italian monk Bernard of Menthon, acquired its first dogs between 1660 and 1670.[3]
source: Wikipedia
St. Bernards are known for the powerful & muscular body which allows them to do rescue jobs easily.
Types of Mini St. Bernards
Mini St. Bernards can’t be purebred dogs, they are usually mixed breeds. However, there are two popular types of Mini St. Bernards which are:
Macro St. Bernards
They are the smallest breed of St. Bernards, they are usually a mix between St. Bernards and Cocker Spaniels. They have an awesome body and character. Their weight ranges from 25-40 pounds and their height ranges from 16-20 inches.
Nehi St. Bernards
They are bigger than the previous ones, they have a larger body. In fact, their weight ranges from 30-50 pounds and their height ranges from 20-25 inches.
Physical Properties of Mini St. Bernard
The Mini St. Bernards still have a muscular body like their ancestors, they can’t lose it. This body always showed them as small dogs rather than toy dogs. Due to their mix with Cocker Spaniel, you will also find some traits of Cocker spaniels in them like the long ear.
However, their body and color look the same as the normal large St. Bernards which is really weird to happen at cross-breed dogs.
In every article, we talk about the main aim of a small dog. But the problem with St. Bernards is that they’re mainly used to be trained to be rescue dogs. They are muscular dogs but not guard dogs. Which in fact, when breeding them down to small dogs they will really lose their main aim and in fact will be just small normal dogs.
Mini St. Bernards’ Health-Related Issues
As we all know, breeding this huge dog down to a smaller one will definitely lead to health issues. In fact, the Mini St. Bernards will make you pay a lot of money.
They are very prone to bone diseases like Hip Displaysia. That will be your main and biggest concern when having a Mini St. Bernard.
They also have a very week immunity system which will make them prone to much more diseases if you didn’t take good care of them and treated them well.
They are very popular to have: Seborrhea, Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and Gastric Dilatation Volvulus
After Buying Your Mini St. Bernard
As a general rule, immediately take him to the vet for a quick checkup. Because the diseases that affect the Mini St. Bernard aren’t really friendly at all.
Most of the diseases that affect this breed are marked as severe dangerous diseases that can really have a great effect on any dog.
That’s why you need to be careful at first and never let your dog go out or interact with other dogs when he is younger than 3.5 months. In fact, I prefer to stick with Mini St. Bernards for a 6 months period before any interaction with other animals that can cause any effect on him.
Mini St. Bernard’s Temperament
St. Bernard is a type of dog who was mainly used for rescuing purposes as stated before, that is because of his muscular body and his ability to work in hard environments. Below are some of Mini St. Bernards’ characters.
- Extreme Loyalty: Well, it is true that all dogs are loyal. However, Mini St. Bernards have special loyalty that he would die for you. It is never hard to make St. Bernard stick to you. All he needs is just care and love.
- Stubborn but willing to listen to you: In fact, this one might seem very contradicting. However, it is not. This dog always listens to a few people which is great. However, if you have an easy character. Then, you will probably struggle a lot.
- Easily Trained: In fact, Mini St. Bernards are one of the easiest dogs to get trained. They love hearing commands and follow them.
- Not Alerting: They aren’t the type of dogs to be trained as “Guard dogs”.
- Very attention-seekers: They will always want you to be around them and play with them. Like many dogs, Mini St. Bernards have this behavior too!
Generally, Mini St. Bernards are great breed! They are lovely, can be trained to be helpful in many ways like Alerting before Seizures. However, they can’t be trained as guard dogs because of their muscles. They can’t be trained to do heavy sports like Mini American Shepherds. They are just normal mini dogs who were bred down from their original breeds.
Mini St. Bernards and Shedding
Generally, Mini St. Bernards have a double coat (which is not always), if they do, that means you will have lots of shedding in between the seasons (because cooker spaniel sheds a lot). However, if you were lucky and they didn’t inherit the double coat. You won’t find shedding a problem.
However, as I always say. Buying Mini dog from a mixed breed is always like gambling. They are general traits for it, but however, you won’t be ever sure about how your dog will be.
Mini St. Bernards’ Breeders
One of the most famous breeders that I have found on the internet is:
Mini St. Bernards:
Yes, that’s their name, they assume that they have one of the best Mini St. Bernards at all. Their dogs tend to be healthy without any issue. I can’t say they are the best.
However, you can check your self at their website.
Conclusion
Mini St. Bernards are great dogs, they have some health issues as all Mini Dogs. However, they are considered to be great for new owners. They are lovely and playful.
They can be trained to be some helpful, however, they are not athletic dogs or guard dogs.
Buying a mini crossbreed is really gambling. So please, choose your breeder carefully before you proceed to buy one.
However, if you are enthusiastic about Mini Dogs, please check our latest articles about Mini American Shepherds, Mini Dalmatians & Mini Rottweilers.