swamplink

← Counting Dogs & Tails · all breeds · charts · compare

St. Bernard

10 figures in the corpus · Q38090

Every figure below carries this breed's name or id in its source study -- grouped by what it measures, not ranked. A breed appearing under a study here does not mean every other breed was tested and came back negative; it means this is what has a named source so far. See each figure's own page for its caveats.

Longevity

9.3 years (median survival) verified

St Bernard: median survival age, UK veterinary clinic population

  • UK primary-care veterinary clinic population (VetCompass), not a census of all dogs of the breed.
  • Hazard ratio vs. the crossbred reference group: 1.66 (95% CI 1.52-1.81, p<0.001).

Size & head shape

3 size class (1=Small, 2=Medium, 3=Large) verified

St Bernard: body size class -- Large

  • Body size and cephalic index classification per Supplementary Table S5; for breeds absent from the study's primary source lists, assigned by majority agreement among Dogs Trust canine-behaviour experts rather than measured directly on dogs.
2 cephalic type (1=Brachycephalic, 2=Mesocephalic, 3=Dolichocephalic) verified

St Bernard: head-shape (cephalic index) classification -- Mesocephalic

  • Body size and cephalic index classification per Supplementary Table S5; for breeds absent from the study's primary source lists, assigned by majority agreement among Dogs Trust canine-behaviour experts rather than measured directly on dogs.

Group

1 group membership (see subject) verified

St Bernard: UK Kennel Club group: Working; FCI group: Pinscher and Schnauzer - Molossoid and Swiss Mountain and Cattledogs

  • KC/FCI group columns record nomenclature presence only, per the table's own caption -- the study did not use group as an analysis variable.

OFA (hip & elbow)

49.9 percent evaluated dysplastic preliminary

St. Bernard: hip evaluations rated dysplastic (mild/moderate/severe combined), OFA cumulative statistics

  • OFA is a voluntary-submission registry: owners/breeders choose whether to have a dog evaluated and whether to submit the result, so this is not a random sample of the breed and most likely understates true population prevalence.
15.3 percent evaluated abnormal preliminary

St. Bernard: elbow evaluations rated abnormal (grade 1-3 combined), OFA cumulative statistics

  • OFA is a voluntary-submission registry: owners/breeders choose whether to have a dog evaluated and whether to submit the result, so this is not a random sample of the breed and most likely understates true population prevalence.

Other

1 purpose class: guarding verified

St Bernard: purpose class 'guarding', from FCI group: Pinscher and Schnauzer - Molossoid and Swiss Mountain and Cattledogs

  • Registry group membership at time of the source table, not an independent behavioural assessment.
220 puppies registered verified

St Bernard (Working group): UK Kennel Club new registrations, 2025; -64.2% vs 2016

  • UK-only; a breed with 0 or blank registrations in a year may be newly recognised, temporarily unregistered, or genuinely absent that year -- the source table does not distinguish these.
5.0 average litter size (puppies) verified

St. Bernard. long-haired: average litter size, Danish Kennel Club registrations Aug 2022-Jul 2023
3.5 average litter size (puppies) verified

St. Bernard. short-haired: average litter size, Danish Kennel Club registrations Aug 2022-Jul 2023