Swiss Mountain Dog - History

History

Although said to derive from Roman molossers, the area from which the type originated never had Roman roads or towns. The dogs may have arrived much earlier than Roman times as part of the ancient transhumance. The word Senn or Senner is the term for Alpine herdsmen and dairymen (an Alpine meadow is called a Sennelager) who tend other farmers' cattle and sometimes sheep; Sennenhund means "dogs of the Senn". Sennenhund were not just cattle dogs, but were kept as general farm dogs, working as livestock guardian dogs and as herding dogs when necessary, as well as guarding the farmers' families, homes, herds, and flocks. The guarding function was especially necessary in earlier times, when wolves and other large predators threatened livestock and people. The larger Sennenhunds were also used for pulling carts.

Today, with the reintroduction of wolves, research is being done on the use of these dogs to protect livestock.

A red and white color once found in the Sennenhunds was said to be from crosses with the St. Bernard dog, a breed from the Alps also said to be descended from Roman molossers.

The Sennenhund, especially the largest ones, began to disappear in the 1800s with the decline in need for butcher's dogs and carting dogs. The efforts of Alpine geologist and indigenous Swiss dog breeds advocate Albert Heim (1849-1937) brought various examples of Sennenhund to an International Dog Show in 1908. At that point Heim and other members of the Schweizerische Kynologische Gesellschaft (Swiss Kennel Club) began sorting out the dogs by what they judged to be representative breed types, and naming the four breeds. See individual breed articles for the history of the first breed clubs and the writing of standards which defined the separate breeds of the type.