Bernese Mountain Dog Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
47 free Bernese Mountain Dog trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This Bernese Mountain Dog trivia quiz covers the tricoloured farm dog of the canton of Bern from its Roman-mastiff roots and 'Cheese Dog' cart-pulling days to the 1907 Dürrbach club, Albert Heim's rescue of the Sennenhund breeds and AKC recognition in 1937. Questions cover the standard in detail: the long coat that sets it apart from its three cousins, the Swiss cross and Swiss kiss, the black nose, blue-eye disqualification, heights, weights, dry mouth, dewclaws and tail. Health is handled honestly, from the cancer figures and malignant histiocytosis to the SOD1 allele, kidney disease and the lifespan studies that trouble the breed. There are questions on carting, herding eligibility, police work and temperament, plus the wider family: the Greater Swiss, Entlebucher and Appenzeller, the St. Bernard's stud-book first, and the city of Bern's bear legend and UNESCO old town. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Dogs and Switzerland quizzes next.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do fanciers usually call the Bernese Mountain Dog for short?
Berner
Berner is simply the German word for 'Bernese', lifted from the breed's home name, Berner Sennenhund, and used by owners from Switzerland to America.
Q 02Swiss farmers once called the Bernese Mountain Dog's ancestors Vieräugler, 'four eyes', after which feature?
The spots above the eyes
The spots above the eyes look like a second pair, and the name was one of several farmyard nicknames the dogs carried before fanciers gave them a formal one in the 1900s.
Q 03A Swiss saying gives the Bernese three years young, three years good and three years old, and calls any more what?
A gift from God
A gift from God, the saying ends; a breed-club survey in 2000 found the average Bernese died at about seven, though many books still promised ten to twelve years.
Q 04By tradition, the Bernese Mountain Dog descends from mastiffs that crossed the Alps with which ancient army?
Roman
Roman dogs are the usual account, but it is tradition, not record: the breed's early history is undocumented.
Q 05The Bernese was once called the Dürrbächler, a name taken from what?
A hamlet near Bern
A hamlet near Bern: Dürrbach and its inn, by Riggisberg, were where the long-haired farm dogs were thickest on the ground, and the name was widened in 1908 to cover the whole canton.
Q 06Which nickname did Swiss locals give the Bernese Mountain Dog?
Cheese Dogs
Cheese Dogs took the name from the valley cheese dairies that spread through the Bernese lowlands in the mid-1800s, where the dogs became a daily sight on the roads that led to them.
Q 07The first Bernese breed club, founded in 1907, was made up of breeders from which region?
Burgdorf
Burgdorf hosted the 1910 show where farmers from the district turned up with 107 of their dogs, and from that day the breed won admirers all over Switzerland.
Q 08Why did the AKC refuse to register America's first known Bernese litter in 1926?
It did not recognise the breed
It did not recognise the breed for another eleven years, so Kansas farmer Isaac Schiess registered his pups with the Swiss Kennel Club instead, under the kennel name The Clover Leaf.
Q 09In 1948 a reportedly accidental mating brought which other breed's blood into the Bernese line?
Newfoundland
Newfoundland blood came in when a dog named Pluto mated the Bernese bitch Christine; the even temper of that litter's descendants spread through almost every line alive today.
Q 10Bród and Síoda, Bernese Mountain Dogs known for greeting visiting dignitaries, belonged to the president of which country?
Ireland
Ireland's Michael D. Higgins let the pair roam his garden parties, where they wove between the tables and sauntered up to him for a belly rub while guests queued for photographs.
Q 11What sets the Bernese apart from its three Sennenhund cousins?
It is the only one with a long coat
It is the only one with a long coat: its three sister breeds are all short-haired, and a short coat disqualifies a Bernese under the international standard.
Q 12The white marking on a Bernese Mountain Dog's chest is known as what?
The Swiss cross
The Swiss cross echoes the white cross of the national flag; the American standard describes the same chest marking more plainly, as an inverted cross.
Q 13On a Bernese, what is a 'Swiss kiss'?
A white mark on the back of the neck
Q 21Which sudden stomach emergency threatens large, deep-chested dogs like the Bernese?
Bloat
Bloat lets gas build until the stomach twists shut, and it can kill without quick treatment; owners are told to feed two smaller meals a day instead of one large one.
Q 22Swiss studies have found the Bernese Mountain Dog unusually prone to fatal disease of which organ?
The kidneys
The kidneys: the breed is prone to an immune-driven inflammation of their filters, and in a later Swiss study dogs with kidney damage died youngest of all, at under seven years.
Q 23Besides the hips, which joints do Bernese breeders X-ray for dysplasia before mating a dog?
The elbows
The elbows: the breed club warns that a Bernese with 'clear hips' can still be unsound there, and a bad elbow can progress to lameness and arthritis.
A white mark on the back of the neck is only tolerated by the international standard, and then no wider than six centimetres; any larger counts as a fault.
Q 14The AKC standard disqualifies a Bernese Mountain Dog for which eye colour?
Blue
Blue eyes put a Bernese out of the ring on both sides of the Atlantic: the American standard disqualifies them, and the international one bars even a single blue 'wall eye'.
Q 15What colour must a Bernese Mountain Dog's nose always be?
Black
Black is the only nose colour either standard allows, and black must be the coat's ground colour too: any other disqualifies a Bernese outright in the American ring.
Q 16How do the breed standards describe a Bernese Mountain Dog's proportions?
Slightly longer than tall
Slightly longer than tall, though the eye reads it as square: the international standard fixes the ratio at nine to ten and calls the build compact, not elongated.
Q 17Which description fits the ears called for in the Bernese Mountain Dog standards?
Triangular with rounded tips
Triangular with rounded tips and set high, they hang close to the head at rest; when the dog is alert they lift at the base and swing forward.
Q 18Which dewclaws do both the American and international standards say should be removed from a Bernese?
The rear ones
The rear ones 'should be removed' in the American standard, while the front ones merely may be; the international standard agrees, but exempts countries where the operation is banned.
Q 19A Swiss study traced more than half of all Bernese Mountain Dog deaths to what?
Cancer
Cancer took 58% of the 381 dogs that died, more than ten times the share of the next cause, and dogs with tumours had shorter lives than dogs with other disorders.
Q 20Which trait do breed clubs say a trainer must respect in a Bernese Mountain Dog?
A sensitive nature
A sensitive nature lies under all that bulk: the clubs warn that hard hands and harsh methods can easily break a Bernese's spirit, and ask for patience and kindness instead.
Q 24Breed clubs warn that a Bernese Mountain Dog does worst when it is kept how?
Alone in a kennel
Alone in a kennel it pines: the clubs call the Bernese a dog that needs human company, and one left unattended for long hours can turn destructive.
Q 25Why do breed clubs tell owners to keep Bernese puppies off long flights of stairs?
To protect growing joints
To protect growing joints: the pups put on weight fast, so the clubs also warn against forced jogging and letting a young dog grow fat, which loads bones that are still forming.
Q 26The calm Bernese Mountain Dog is a natural at which activity it originally performed in Switzerland?
Pulling small carts
Pulling small carts was the breed's farm job, taking weavers' baskets and farmers' milk to market; clubs still test the skill in draft trials, with no loaded cart before the age of two.
Q 27The Bernese Mountain Dog is eligible to compete in which of these AKC disciplines?
Herding
Herding was half the old farm job: the dogs drove dairy cattle between the valley and the summer pastures, and the AKC lists the breed among those eligible for its herding tests.
Q 28Which pair of words do both the American and international standards use for the Bernese temperament?
Self-confident and good-natured
Self-confident and good-natured appear in both; the American standard adds that a Bernese may stay aloof with strangers, which breeders insist is not the same as shyness.
Q 29In Switzerland and Germany, the Bernese Mountain Dog has been trained for which line of work?
Search and rescue
Search and rescue suits this easily trained breed: dogs find people buried by avalanches, then stay on the spot and bark until the handler arrives.
Q 30In the name Sennenhund, who were the Senn that the dogs worked beside?
Alpine herdsmen
Alpine herdsmen, the Senn, tended other farmers' cattle on the high summer meadows; a literal translation of the breed's German name is 'Bernese Alpine herdsman's dog'.