In one 24-hour period last week, I ran into: two adult Bernese mountain dogs (common enough in SF), one Bernese mountain dog puppy (ee!), one Greater Swiss mountain dog (rare in SF), and one Entlebucher (VERY rare in SF). If I could only have found an Appenzeller (which I’ve never even seen before) I would have gotten the entire set.
In celebration, I hereby declare this ‘Swiss Dog Week!’ Let the awesomeness begin!
Edit: Ohgod, I totally forgot to mention that Elsa was being walked by a gentleman from ‘Ultimate Dog Walking‘, a competitor of Autumn’s San Francisco Pup Scouts. But hey, that’s no reason we can’t be friendly, right? Even if they are the enemy.
So why is it that Swiss dogs all have such awesome eyebrows?
This was by no means Elsa’s only trick (‘high five!’) but it was definitely a good one.
Elsa is about 100 pounds of pure love. (Plus about a half pound of drool. Yay!)
Dorothy is precious. I can’t wait to get mine. I’ve had two English Mastiffs and they were amazing. Losing both of them at only 2 and a half years old ripped my heart out. Jaw bone cancer? We were told by breeder that going way back there was no problems with “ANY” of their $1000.00 dogs. We were flat out lied to. Dorothy is so beautiful. I was going to get one as my second dog, and ended up getting another English Mastiff. To have my heart broken again. I look so forward to getting a Berner. She’s just beautiful.
Aw man. I really feel for you… English mastiffs are such sweet, happy dogs. I would be absolutely crushed to lose one after only two and a half years. I wish you the best of luck with your Berner, although I have to warn you that they’re not all that healthy themselves. I’ve known two that only lived six years, and quite a few more that didn’t make it to 9. I’ve seen a lot more luck with Bernese crosses… I’ve run into one 11-year-old Bernese/golden retriever mix, and one who was 13 years old and looked no more than 6 or 7. (This guy.)
Anyway, the best of luck to you. They are amazing dogs, they really are… my girlfriend periodically gets to dogsit a pair of them, and sometimes I take over for her if she’s busy or out of town, and it is always a privilege (and a challenge!).