Saint Bernard
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48 free Saint Bernard trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Saint Bernard began as a watchdog at a monks' hostel 2,469 metres up the Great St Bernard Pass and became the most famous rescue dog in the world, mostly thanks to one animal: Barry, credited with 40 saves and still on display in Bern. The giant, slobbery show dog of today is a 19th-century rebuild, crossed with Newfoundlands and mastiffs after avalanches wiped out the original stock. These 48 questions cover the hospice and the pass, Bernard of Menthon, the legend and the truth of Barry's death, the brandy cask the monks insist no dog ever carried, the first entry in the Swiss Stud Book, Red Cross work in World War I, the last rescue in 1955 and the breed's health record. Then the famous dogs: Beethoven and the Fifth Symphony, Cujo and his Ford Pinto, Buck in The Call of the Wild, Nana, Bamse and the Colorado Avalanche's Bernie. Easy questions stick to rescue work and Stephen King; the expert tier asks about Salvator Rosa, Pius XI and the Fondation Barry. Every answer is cited to a page we checked.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do the monks of the Great St Bernard Pass now rely on for rescues instead of dogs?
Helicopters
Helicopters now do the rescue work on the pass, while the St. Bernards go up only for the summer, mostly to meet tourists and walk with visitors.
Q 02Which country is officially recognised as the St. Bernard's country of origin?
Switzerland
Switzerland: the hospice that bred the dogs stands just on the Swiss side of its border pass, and the St. Bernard is regarded as the country's national dog.
Q 03Since 1995, a tiny St. Bernard's head has been the official quality mark stamped on what in the dog's homeland?
Precious metals
Precious metals: in 1995 the dog's head replaced a set of older marks, so one stamp now covers gold, silver, platinum and palladium at every grade of purity.
Q 04Which giant German breed is said to come from a hospice St. Bernard crossed with other big dogs around 1840?
Leonberger
Leonberger: breeder Heinrich Essig of Leonberg said he crossed a male from the hospice with two other giant breeds, in legend to match the lion on his town's coat of arms.
Q 05Which of these was a common name for the hospice's rescue dogs before the name St. Bernard stuck?
Alpine Mastiffs
Alpine Mastiffs: the breed went without a settled name for decades, so people also spoke of Hospice Dogs or Barry Dogs until the national kennel club fixed on St. Bernard in 1880.
Q 06In legend, how did the rescue dog Barry get a half-frozen boy to the hospice?
Carried him on his back
Carried him on his back: the tale has Barry lick the boy awake and bear him home alone, but the museum that keeps his body says no dog could manage such a feat.
Q 07In The Call of the Wild, Buck, son of a St. Bernard, is stolen to do what work?
Pull sleds in the Klondike
Pull sleds in the Klondike: a gardener's helper with gambling debts sells Buck off a California ranch, because the 1897 gold rush had made big, strong dogs worth a small fortune.
Q 08According to legend, how did the rescue dog Barry die?
Stabbed by a man he found
Stabbed by a man he found: the legend has a soldier wake under the snow, take Barry for a wolf and use his bayonet, but Barry really died of old age at 14 after two years of retirement.
Q 09In which city's Natural History Museum is the preserved body of the rescue dog Barry displayed?
Bern
Bern: Barry was sent there to retire at the prior's request and died in 1814, and his mounted body has been on show at the city's museum ever since.
Q 10Why did the rescue dog Barry's museum mount get a bigger head when rebuilt in 1923?
To match the modern breed
To match the modern breed: by 1923 show St. Bernards were far bigger than Barry had been, so the taxidermist enlarged his head and lifted it out of its meek original pose.
Q 11In the 1992 comedy Beethoven, what is the day job of the villain who wants the St. Bernard for experiments?
Veterinarian
Veterinarian: Dr. Varnick smears fake blood on his arm and claims Beethoven attacked him, so the family will hand the dog over to be put down.
Q 12What naming tradition honours the Great St Bernard Hospice's most famous rescuer?
One dog always carries his name
One dog always carries his name: by tradition the finest male puppy of a litter is called Barry, so there has been a Barry at the kennels ever since the original.
Q 13What killed many of the hospice's breeding dogs during the severe winters of 1816 to 1818?
Avalanches
Q 21In the 1936 Disney cartoon Alpine Climbers, who gets tipsy with a St. Bernard on the brandy from its keg?
Pluto
Pluto is dug out of the snow by the St. Bernard and revived from its keg, and the two end up roaring drunk together while Mickey is busy fighting off a mother eagle.
Q 22Which Russian breed was created by crossing St. Bernards with Caucasian Shepherd Dogs?
Moscow Watchdog
Moscow Watchdog: the Soviet army's Red Star kennel bred it in the late 1940s, crossing St. Bernards for size with Caucasian Shepherds for guarding instinct, to watch warehouses and railways.
Q 23How does the American Kennel Club classify the St. Bernard?
Working Group
Avalanches: the dogs were caught while out on rescues in three winters of exceptional snow, and the hospice's line came close to dying out.
Q 14Why did crossing the hospice's rescue dogs with a long-haired breed in the 19th century backfire?
Ice built up in the fur
Ice built up in the fur: snow froze into the long coats and weighed the dogs down, which made them worse at the work rather than better, and the monks went back to favouring short hair.
Q 15Which American poet's 'Excelsior' ends with a hound of the monks of Saint Bernard finding the hero frozen in the snow?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has a youth climb an Alpine pass at night, ignoring every warning, and at dawn the monks' faithful hound finds him half-buried, still gripping his banner.
Q 16About how many people are the hospice's monks and dogs credited with saving over the centuries?
2,000
2,000 is the usual tally: after a snowstorm the dogs went out with the monks, found the way through the drifts and helped dig out stranded travellers.
Q 17What became of the Great St Bernard Hospice's kennels and dogs in the early 2000s?
A foundation took them over
A foundation took them over: the Barry Foundation, named after the hospice's most famous dog, now breeds them in the valley below and brings some back up to the pass each summer.
Q 18About what size were the original rescue dogs of the Great St Bernard Hospice?
A German Shepherd
A German Shepherd is about right: Barry weighed only 40 to 45 kg, and the breed ballooned later, when 19th-century show breeders paid high prices for the biggest dogs.
Q 19Which English animal painter pictured two hospice dogs reviving a snowbound traveller in 1820?
Edwin Landseer
Edwin Landseer was a teenager when he painted the scene: one dog barks for help while the other licks the fallen traveller's hand to revive him.
Q 20What do the monks of the Great St Bernard Hospice say about their dogs carrying brandy casks?
No dog ever carried one
No dog ever carried one, the monks insist: the little barrel was a painter's invention of 1820, and brandy would in any case have chilled a snowbound traveller faster.
Working Group: the AKC files the St. Bernard with dogs bred to guard, haul and rescue, and the hospice's dogs did all three, plus a turn in the kitchen walking a wheel that spun the roasting spit.
Q 24The four Sennenhund mountain breeds resemble the St. Bernard, so how do they differ in colour?
They are tricolour
They are tricolour, black, white and tan against the St. Bernard's red and white; both types are thought to descend from the big farm dogs of the Alps.
Q 25Which future Hollywood star made his feature film debut as a schoolboy in the St. Bernard comedy Beethoven?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has only a small part as a schoolmate. When a couple out to swindle the family come to dinner, Beethoven winds his leash round their chairs and drags them down the street.
Q 26Deep-chested giants like the St. Bernard are prone to which sudden, life-threatening stomach emergency?
Bloat
Bloat: the stomach swells with gas and can twist shut, which is why owners of big dogs are told to feed several small meals a day and skip hard exercise around mealtimes.
Q 27Who was the Saint Bernard behind the breed's name?
The hospice's founder
The hospice's founder was Bernard of Menthon, an 11th-century archdeacon of Aosta who set up the refuge on the pass so travellers and pilgrims would have shelter from the snow.
Q 28The Great St Bernard Hospice was built to shelter medieval pilgrims crossing the Alps on their way to which city?
Rome
Rome: the pass lay on the great pilgrim road from northern Europe, whose stages were written down for an archbishop of Canterbury around 990 and which is walked today as the Via Francigena.
Q 29Which author walked his St. Bernard, Porthos, in Kensington Gardens, where he met the boys who inspired his most famous play?
J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie put Porthos into his 1902 novel The Little White Bird, where the narrator's huge St. Bernard shares the pages with the very first appearance of Peter Pan.
Q 30The Great St Bernard Pass leads from the canton of Valais over the Alps into which country?
Italy
Italy: the road drops to the city of Aosta on the southern side, and because the summit is snowbound for most of the year a road tunnel now carries the traffic underneath.