The quite large size of the Saint Bernard could make you think that this was a breed of very limited scope, and that breeders had difficulties finding purchasers for their puppies: after all there couldn't be a lot of people who could afford to keep a giant in their back yard! This is only partially true: but the real situation is much more complex than it appears.
  Of course, the demand for puppies is rather limited (in our country little less than a thousand per year): but extra quality puppies never reach such a high number. Breeders manage to supply only part of the demand, because this is a particular breed: to work in a correct way one has to have just a few dogs, produce only a few litters and bring them up with maximum care. This means that the average of a good kennel is two to four litters a year for a total of three to four hundred puppies.
  If the demand is for a thousand, there it opens a wide space for both those who "grind out" puppies for pure financial purposes, and unfortunately for those who buy off or sell dogs from Eastern countries.
  For this breed both of the forementioned situations are dramatic: to produce a lot of Saint Bernard puppies for commercial purposes, there are two ways. One could either keep a lot of female breeders or keep just one who produces a lot of litters. Keeping many female Saint Bernards, obviously, is not the best way of making easy money: therefore these so-called breeders usually choose the second way, to exploit at best a low number of she-breeders.
  This system is against any breeding ethic, and anybody who even marginally an animal-lover is horrified by the idea: but unfortunately so-called breeders do it, and the same happens with all other breeds.
   The larger the size though, the worse are the consequences of this terrible habit: that is because large females have a harder time giving birth in proportion to their size, and the same goes for lactation, recovery between litters and so on. If a female of medium size is mate two or three times in a row she is worn out but gets better in a relatively short time, mate a female Saint Bernard twice a year for two or three consecutive years means reducing by 50% her lifetime and life quality: but this is of no interest to the so-called breeder, because to him his dog is nothing but a source of income and certainly not a living being. At the moment she becomes unable to beare more offspring he doesn't mind putting her down: this would avoid extra expenses for her feeding. Exploiting a giant female doesn't only mean wearing her out, it also means producing weak offspring.
  Giant puppies need extra energy in their first few weeks, because their growth is very fast and their development is impressive: but this energy cannot be derived from the milk of a worn out female, and the approximative weaning performed in some of the commercial kennels does not improve things either. Breeding a Saint Bernard puppy is something else than breeding a puppy of small or medium size: certainly encreasing food rations in proportion to his weight won't be sufficient.
 To successfully bring up a litter of giants you have to monitor constantly and carefully the relations between the quantity and quality of food as well as puppies' reactions: you should consider paramaters such as the relation of age/height/weight, brightness of the coat, muscular and bone structure development. You have to monitor every single dog, because every subject of a litter could react in a different way to the same nourishment.
   Do you really think a person who only cares about income would dedicate all of this attention to a litter? It is indeed a rhetorical question, no need to answer! What happens then if you purchase a puppy bred for the purpose of making money?
  What happens is, simply, that you take home a dog that has suffered an irreversible and unmendable damage.
  A small or medium size dog, if well-bred in his first few months, can still recover (at least 90%) if the new owner shifts to an alimentation that is balanced, integrates it with minerals and vitamins and so on.
   For the giant it is no longer possible, because in his first sixty days of life his growth should have been phenomenal. If he "stays behind", a puppy of this breed can't be brought back to his right development stage: it is no longer possible to submit to him a "dosage of recovery", that should be bound to the one (relevant) he needs to continue his growth: something of this sort could even kill the dog.
  So far we have spoken of puppies (poorly) bred in the same country where they are purchased.
  To understand fully the meaning of purchasing a puppy coming from Eastern Europe, you need to think at the same unfortunates born from a mother in bad conditions, badly weaned and poorly fed and then precociously separated from the mother, squeezed on a train or truck, forced to undertake long trips in even worse hygienic conditions than before.
  There is no need to add anything more: I would just like to remind you that imported puppies and so-called breeder's puppies do not undergo any selection, neither from the physical point of view (and one can tell!) nor from the temperamental one (and it has been often heard of shy exemplares or of Saint Bernards that bite: an extraordinary thing from a breed well known across the world for its good temper and kindness towards man!).
  In addition: no selection is applied what so ever regarding hereditary diseases (such as the dysplasia of the hip), which are very common among dogs of great size, and the spreading of which could be limited -because entiraly or partially hereditary - by undergoing an accurate selection of the breeding speciments. To conclude: the ulcer of commercial breeding, along with wreckless importing, is a disgrace for cynofilia as much as damage for all breeds. But if we speak of large size breeds, and in particular of the Saint Bernard dog, damage is multiplied by a thousand.
  Within this breed a "medium quality" doesn't exist: it exists instead "the breed", the one brought up and cared for by the best of breeders, and a "subbreed" that has practically nothing to do with the Saint Bernard: not physically, nor psychologically, not even (unfortunately) from the sanitary point of view.
  As you know large size dogs haven't got a long lifetime: but a well-bred and correctly brought up Saint Bernard could reach (and exceed sometimes) ten to twelve years of age.
  Any dog of less quality (even though he is usually smaller and weighs less than a proper one) can barely reach the sixth or seventh year... unfortunately a very high percentage of "subbreeds" die within their first few months, or certainly before becoming adults. This unpleasant topic was not easy to approach and probably neither to read: but it was our duty, because purchasing a Saint Bernard "wannabe" means to be taken advantage of, and it is just right to be informed and to act accordingly.

The Saint Bernard is certainly not a dog for everybody Saint Bernard's gifted temperament can be only of those bred and selected with extra care, certainly not to be traced in puppies produced as an income to their so-called breeder

  Whoever desires a dog there are three options of choice: you could go to a kennel, to a private breeder or to a pet-shop.
  If you read the "important premise" to this chapter you have already understood that for this breed selection is among the most important things: let's deepen the topic further, to eliminate misunderstanding and mistakes..

From a kennel

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  The first thing to do is to distinguish a "good" kennel from a simple kennel: in the latter one there may be a few of those so-called breeders we just saw.
  But how to spot a "good" kennel?
  First of all by its affix, that is the name which attests ENCI's (Ente Nazionale Cinofilia Italiana) recognition: nevertheless that will not be enough, because ENCI requires certain warranties only to allow the affix. But later on is no longer able to monitor the use one puts it to, so the grim reality is that nowadays so-called breeders exist with no scruples with an affix approved by ENCI.
  To understand if we are in the right kennel we'll need to make another enquiry: check if, for example, the kennel is specialized in that breed..
  No so-called breeder would raise "only" Saint Bernards: specialization is a prerogative of true dog-lovers (and you can tell for it doesn't allow great income).
  Therefore distrust any kennel offering "puppies of any breed", perhaps even offering "shipment anywhere in Italy, including the islands": a true breeder would never send his puppies as postal packages to a recipient he had never even met. Examine the space allowed to the dogs: to breed well a Saint Bernard dog means keeping them in the shadow, on a natural soil (never on concrete or tiles), and obviously assuring each dog sufficient space.
  Another important parameter is the serious "interrogation" any fair breeder will make to the future owner: whoever agrees to sell you a dog without knowing what your family is like, if you have a yard, if you own other dogs and so on doesn't care for his puppies or their future, therefore can't be a quality breeder.

From a private (breeder)

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  In most cases, a private owner who decides to mate his female is a passionate dog-lover who would do anything to bring up healthy happy puppies, as if they were... his own children.
 Unfortunately there are two possible risks: the first regards the quality of the breeding male, the other one the lack of experience of the private owner himself.
 Of course the mum and dad of the puppies are directly "responsible" for their offspring's looks, temperament and so on: but what sometimes happens, when you deal with a private (who is by definition a non-expert), is that he claims to be the owner of the most beautiful female in the world, when it isn't so. To each owner, in love with his dog, that animal has no rivals: it will always be the most beautiful, the best, the most intelligent and simply perfect!
  That is very comprehensible, and I find that a nice thing. Unfortunately, as we said already, within this breed there are is compromise: actual reality is made of exceptional dogs opposed to the ones of very low level.
  The private owner might worship his huge female, but if she is belongs to the latter category, unfortunately her puppies will not be much better.
  Naturally this litter will be handled with the best of care, will be nourished and followed with a lot of love and will not present those problems we discussed when speaking of the so-called breeders or the "wild importers": but if the mother or the father are unhandsome dogs, we'll have to face unhandsome puppies.
  There is however the possibility of the opposite situation: when a private owner purchases a fair female from a great kennel and possibly mates her with a stud of the same level. In this case we could have a slightly lower price - than a breeder's, on excellent puppies.
  Lower but only "slightly": who ever owns a high quality dog is perfectly aware of his puppies' value and is not prepared to sell them cheap.
  Either way purchasing from a private owner, from the financial prospective, has serious advantages due to several factors:
  - A private owner has not the same management costs a breeder has;
  Per tutti questi motivi è probabile che un privato venda i cuccioli a un prezzo interessante.
  - He is bound to sell the puppies without an affix, that is without that "last name" which, on a pedigree equals a label of quality.
  - He is frequently in need of finding a new home for the puppies, because a regular garden can easily indoor a Saint Bernard... but a family of Saint Bernards might become a bit of a space-problem.
For all of these reasons it is probable a private owner will sell his puppies at a lower price. Be careful though, because there could be another problem: by not being an expert breeder, a private owner even in good faith, could make mistakes.
We saw how difficult it is to raise a litter of Saint Bernards successfully: sometimes love and willingness are just not enough.
  So, if you decide to purchase a puppy from a private breeder:
  - Make sure the puppy's parents are of high level (observable, in the first place; ask to view their pedigree and inform yourselves on eventual results they accomplished on shows, if ever exhibited);
  - Enquire about the way they were cared for (weaning, feeding, vaccination and so on);
If you were under the impression that not everything was done lege artis, it would be best to think it over once again. You could have some very serious problems.

From a pet shop

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  It is very difficult to seriously discuss this topic because there are excellent shops as well as terrible ones, and it is impossible to make a generalization. There are a lot of great shops, where they love and respect animals a lot, therefore it would be wrong to tell you to: "Stay away from pet shops".
  On the other hand we can't possibly tell you to "Go and purchase your puppy from a pet shop with a light heart" because it is there the so-called breeders and "wreckless importers" from Eastern countries find their market.
  The only thing we could do for you is to try helping you to sort the "good" pet shops out from the "bad" ones: which is not that hard, in particular if we put as a basic notion that requiring guarantees is the right of every purchaser, and certainly not an insult to the shop owner.
  The first thing to say is that seldom do shops have puppies "ready to go" and especially they do not keep the puppies in the window. A shop owner who loves animals knows well that the shop's window is not a healthy spot for puppies as much for hygiene as for other reasons such as exposure to sun or smog. Therefore a serious dealer does not put on display "merchandise", but puts himself as an intermediary between the purchaser and serious private breeders or quality kennels.
  In the case of the Saint Bernard dog it is slightly different because, as we saw, the best breeders produce too few puppies for the hundreds of requests they receive.
  It is quite unthinkable that these persons could "spare" a puppy to commit to merchant mediation: so the serious shop owners will deal only with private litters.
  At this point the arguments "for" and "against" are the same ones we discussed for the private breeder: a difference in favour of the shop is that the shop owner could have different contacts between private owners (even through veterinarians)and could find a puppy without making you travel too far or search too long.
  But how can we be certain our puppy really comes from a reliable private breeder, and not form a unscrupulous wholesaler?
  It is quite simpe: we demand to see the sale contract, in writing and properly signed.
  Ask to have put on paper the precise provenance of the puppy, the name of his parents, the precise date of birth, a guarantee of the puppy's registration to LOI (Libro Origini Italiano, Italian Stud Book, conducted by ENCI).
  Steer clear if they tell you the puppy is not registered to LOI, but that he is in the possession of an "international pedigree": it might sound fancy or even something more than a simple "national" pedigree, but it conceals a real fraud. The so called "international pedigrees" (not convertible to LOI's) are worthless pieces of paper issued by associations (or so-called) not recognized by FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale to which ENCI is affiliated).
  In other words those are fake pedigrees, issued for the most naïf purchasers.
 At the moment of purchase you should make them write down for you the treatment the puppy has had so far, such as vaccination, worming and so on.
  You should also ask for a (which is usually the incubation period) against distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis and parvovirosis: if the puppy should contract some of these illnesses, the dealer binds himself to pay you back the entire amount..
  As a regularly vaccinated puppy is not at risk, the dealer should not make a fuss about it: if he does, say goodbye.

  Some people share the opinion they could save some money by purchasing a puppy without pedigree, because they are not interested in joining exhibitions and does not want a beauty champ, but only a companion for his family. There are however a few things to be taken in consideration:

A pedigree does not identify a "beautiful dog": it identifies a pure breed dog. A Saint Bernard without papers, even if stunning, could not be defined a "Saint Bernard": that means he could not take part in any official dog event and he could encounter serious difficulties when searching for a mating partner. Owners of pure breed dogs never mate them with exemplars without proper pedigree, because then the puppies couldn't have one either (to the contrary of what some may think, it is not sufficient for just one parent to have a pedigree) and they would lose any commercial value.

Whoever chooses the Saint Bernard certainly desires a large, beautiful, tender, obedient dog, safe to let children around and equipped with that particular "sixth sense" which brought him to save so many human lives through the centuries.
   · Unfortunately, you can't be sure to find those characteristics in a dog with no pedigree, to whom no selection was applied to mantain and improve those gifts. A Saint Bernard dog without pedigree could have the appearance of a true pure breed (at least to an amateur's eye) and be in fact the result of a crossing. Things change when a kennel offers at a lower price, without issuing the pedigree, a puppy with such problems that would exclude him from shows (such as one testicle which failed to descend): in this case we shall certainly have a "true" Saint Bernard, who will offer excellent companionship but will never be able to step inside a ring in a dog show.

  The puppy is not the only possible option for somebody who wants a dog. There are certainly no alternatives if we wish to follow our dog step by step as he grows, enjoy his first discoveries, "shape" his temperament accordingly to our lifestyle; but if we don't have enough time, if we shiver at the sole idea of pee on the carpet and we undergo the choice of a small puppy only because we believe it will become more affectionate than an older puppy or a grown dog, we are mistaken.
  The dog becomes affectionate at any age: the difference lies in the time it takes. An older puppy might take two to three weeks, a grown dog might take a little more ( in particular if he had a great relationship with his former master): but in the end the result (of course, if we're up to it) will be a dog who gives us his whole heart, devotion and loyalty.
  Whoever believes a puppy would require too much effort, might find the following resumptive prospect helpful ,which discusses a few "for" and "against" points when choosing an older puppy or a grown dog.

OLDER PUPPY (FIVE-TWELVE MONTHS) For   His body and temperament can still be shaped, but we'll be spared some difficulties in training. An older puppy is less delicate than a very young one, he already knows how to behave on a leash, and is usually familiar with the basic training orders such as "come!" and "no!".   An expert could already evaluate, with a sixty-seventy percent certainty, his chances as an exhibition dog. Against   We will be very engaged (but less than with a small puppy). He will cause less damage, but of bigger entity than a small puppy. Depends...   He will be partially influenced by the training and treatment acquired before: this could be a positive if training and treatment were of high level, if not it could really lead to disaster. If the subject is truly beautiful, his price will be higher than the price for a puppy.   Sometimes, though (as we saw with the small puppy), you could also find an older puppy who missed his date with fame for a detail of less importance (such as a missing tooth): it would declass him in a show, but is certainly no obstacle for friendship. If you are lucky, you could get an excellent dog at a very good price (the breeder will have to give him away and will gladly meet our demand). ADULT (OVER - TWELVE MONTHS) For   If we desired an exhibitional subject, the adult is the only category to offer us hope and surety. It will be immediately employable as breeder.   He will require less time, care and attention than a younger or older puppy (therefore he will cost less). We will know with certainty he brings no hereditary faults.   He will be less at risk of disease and illness, than an older or younger puppy. Against   He will remain with us for less time. Possible undesirable behavior will already be well radicated and very difficult to correct. Depends...   The dog who already achieved success and/or titles always costs an awful lot; but if we want a "regular" dog, we could find one at a low price or even for free.   Some breeders are happy to entrust to a family their mature subjects, who are no longer employable as breeders but still able to give a lot of love and satisfaction to those who take care of them.

A breeder who asks a lot of questions to the client is interested in the future of his puppies.