First of all we must stress that the actual Saint Bernard dog, besides carrying out his regular work as mountain rescue dogs in many countries across and outside of Europe, has perfected his performance as a rescue dog during catastrophes, accomplishing excellent results under most difficult conditions. Therefore those who assertain to the contrary are mistaken when they assert the actual Saint Bernard dog is a "static" entity of no practical useinammissibile.
Each of us is free to express his opinions, but it is inadmissible to do it disregarding the truth. True facts are not so easily erasable!


  We have to underline that mountain rescue, as it is organized today, is reduced to its minimum canine responsibilities, because nowadays man does all the work himself, helped by perfected mechanical means such as helicopters, motorized sleds, snowmobiles, escavators, radiophones, sounds, thermic and sound sensors, drills and so on. The task of the dog, who is usually transported to the sight by air, is to briefly explore a limited area, so that many breeds and not only mountain dogs, can be employed (such as the German shepherd). In other words, technology invented by man replaced the Saint Bernard in the mountains and not other canine breeds, as some might wrongfully think, as the engine replaced animal traction. The activity of a true rescue dog in the mountains (preeminent until World War II) can be developed nowadays only if, because of environmental, logistic or meteorological reasons technical means were to fail and the ancient conditions were reproduced, the conditions where the dog, often on his own, had to fight nature's adversities.
  Only under those circumstances, that imply an employment of the dog at the limits of survival, would it be possible to understand and evaluate the Saint Bernard dog as mountain rescue dog as well as the absolute top of any other breed.


 The Saint Bernard dog, in the classic era of rescue, as we saw, did almost everything by himself, went off alone patroling the mountain sides all day, crossed paths covered with thick, deep snow following his infallible instincts, avoiding precipices and clefts. When he reached the avalanche site (frequently after hours of walking) and if he sensed the presence of someone buried under the snow, he would dig a tunnel to reach the unfortunate that he sometimes managed to drag out by himself, warm him up and then carry him to the nearest shelter. In other cases he would have run to the Hospice for help. To perform these kind of rescue actions the dog had to be gifted with: excellent sense of smell, perfect sense of orientation and the ability to avoid avalanches on his way to and from the site (after the first notes taken by De Saussure and the monks themselves, rigorous scientific tests brought to light how dogs of this breed can signal minutes in advance if a blizzard is coming or an avalanche about to drop). In other words, the Saint Bernard can perceive sound waves of frequencies superior to 20 kHz (which is the human limit) with peaks up to 80/100 kHz he can hear sounds coming from a distance 4 to 5 times the one humans can). This means that dogs can perceive the slightest sound wave produced by the blast which anticipates of a few minutes the avalanche, as a result of the detachment of massive portions of snow at high altitude. We saw the Saint Bernard is among the most gifted of dogs for these kind of tasks as far as his sense of smell, not only for the undertaken practical tests, but also for the relation between the width and the sum of Schneider's membrane (in particular its superior part or " Ecker's locus luteus") and, as we said before, between his frontal sinuses, better developed than in any other work-type breed, so developed he can display the aforementioned teleolfactory performances.
  Multisecular selection did not only improve the olfactory system of the "Giant of the Alps", but it also made him apt to perform in the rarefied atmosphere of high altitude. According to recent studies (documented by the scientist Desmond Morris), the Saint Bernard owns (only among canine breeds) infra-red olfactory cells (that way he is able to detect thermic waves emitted by warm bodies, therefore still living, even if buried under snow or wreckage). We have to add that the Saint Bernard is able to walk day and night on ice, without stopping for plantar cushions injuries as happens within other non-mountain dog breeds (such as the German shepherd). Furthermore, no other dog is able to move in the snow, even if very deep, as the Saint Bernard can, both because of the conformation of his gigantic feet and the thoracic width. Without mentioning that the open angles of his hind give a great drive when uphill. Last but not least, his size is an essentially coefficient to develop the necessary potence to carry out a task as well as increasing his resistence in bad weather (the well-known thermodynamics law says that "resistence to frost increases as the size of the body enlarges, in relation to the weight it decreases"), this is a fact regardless of the dog's coat, which is in the Saint Bernard, as in the Pyrenean or in the Tibet Mastiff, proper for a mountain dog. As an effect of this law, an Irish Wolfhound of 90 cm higth at withers, with a weight less than a 90 cm high Saint Bernard, will have a wider body surface in relation to his weight and, therefore, will suffer frost more.

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