Many years ago, at a particularly difficult time of technical empasse for both judges and breeders, the mourned judge, breeder and researcher Roberto De Sanctis wrote a historical article for the "Boxer" review, briefly outlining once again what should be the "basic characteristics of type" which define a breed. The title of the article was "Take a stand in defence of the Boxer"; the article raised a lot of fuss at first but it also, as it was in the author's intentions, achieved the goal of making both judges and breeders take in more serious consideration the study of the breed (which beneficiated a lot from it). A few years ago, for the forthcoming numerous seminars and technical congresses organized by the Italian Saint Bernard Club and the International Foundation "Antonio Morsiani" for Research on Dog and with ENCI (the Italian Kennel Club) support, we published in our various clubs review, technical papers of ours, which had the aim of establishing once and for all the "basic characteristics of type" for the Saint Bernard dog, from which no judge neither specialist or an all around judge would ever - in any case and under any circumstances - part. All of this in regard of the new FCI Saint Bernard breed Standard, implemented only three years earlier (april 2004), as the outcome of a long international technical effort in which Italy had a leading role.
The new text, which we could rightfully define detailed ("a maglia stretta"), finally introduced some important criteria in cynognostic and biometric evaluation (rare fact in FCI standards, apart from the Italian ones), leading the breed towards a truly zootechnical, functional to work and adaptational type of beauty.
The new criteria respect and are in harmony with the classic tradition of the so-called "Golden Era" of the Saint Bernard, in which the fundamental ethnic concept of "embellished work-dog": strong, imposing, of large size, with massive bone structure, long limbs (the distance elbow - ground always equal or superior to 50% of height at withers) and horizontal croup (coaxal angle approximately 15º/20º), posterior angles only moderately tight, with "muscular" constitutional habitus (never digestive, sign of hypertype, nor respiratory, hypotype), of noble appearance with angular, square head, rectangular trunk and neck of proper length, excellent in gait, very mobile and resistent to fatigue - as the criteria the breeders and judges of the Golden Era appreciated. It is to point out that the new Saint Bernard breed Standard encloses briefly but clearly the "Comments to the Saint Bernard Standard" by Dr. Antonio Morsiani - which you can view on this web site, unanimously considered by most important judges and breeders across the world, to be the "Bible of the Saint Bernard dog", published on several occasions by CISB and ENCI, translated and published within all books regarding the Saint Bernard. The "Comments" constitute a true patrimony of cynognostical science applied to the Saint Bernard, necessary to all of those judges and breeders who desire to master the knowledge on this ancient and technically very complicated breed. The aforementioned "Comments" are to be considered within the genre, a true and unsurpassed masterpiece as far as cynotechnical detail, accompanied by thousands of explanatory drafts, as a result of over fifty years of studies and effort of the most important researcher the breed ever had. The draft of the profile prospective of the "ideal dog" (included in this text) by dr. Antonio Morsiani has been officially adopted by FCI as explanatory indispensable to the new Standard. The complete "corpus" of Dr. Morsiani's research and drawings is at the disposal of anybody who is genuinely interested in truly knowing the Saint Bernard breed at the Foundation for Research on Dog named after him, in Bagnara di Romagna (Ravenna, Italy). A las, once again we have to mention the fact that both ENCI all around judges for Saint Bernards and aspiring judges, although always invited and informed by the Italian Saint Bernard Club and by ENCI direction about the many seminars and conventions of technical update held a few times a year by us as a Club at ENCI or at the aforementioned Foundation, never show.
With inevitable consequences as far as proper technical judgement, of course, they give each week at dog shows. This fact is of great damage to our breed, inducing doubts and obviously lack of orientation among breeders and owners who see their dog get diverging assessment on different shows (both national and international) as well as on reunions and specialty shows (when the judge is almost always a specialist of the breed). This is more than an inconvenience a true problem never solved, which probably regards all canine breeds, but that obviously emerges in particular within highly typified breeds, such as the Saint Bernard, which require absolute seriousness in research and actual technical updating and deepening of study on behalf of the judges. It seems necessary at this point to renew the invitation to all ENCI judges specialized for Saint Bernards, to the newly appointed judges, to all of the judges who include our breed among their specializations, to the "all around" judges and to those who aspire to become judges, to improve the study on the breed by attending update conventions, which are organized mostly for them, and in particular by paying more attention on the criteria of judgement they adopt with particular emphasis on the basic characteristics of type, we intend to display once again in this text. We do so as officials, as judge trainers and breed specialists in Italy.
But we also do so as chairman and vice-chairman of the Italian Saint Bernard Club which is the only sodality for the Saint Bernard officially recognized by ENCI, and which celebrates its 40^th anniversary this very year.
I taly is very fortunate because it is the only country that can count on cynognostic studies regarding the Saint Bernard dog of such a high level as no other country in the world: paying more attention to this priceless patrimony available to all judges and breeders means showing respect for the breed and consideration for its - over a hundred years old - history.
The achievement the breeder should strive to must be optimizing the selection of the best exemplars. His Bible should be the breed Standard and its Comments. Any deviation from this rule could induce such variations to put in serious jeopardy the essence of the breed itself. One should however bear in mind that the Standard is but a series of chapters of a book which only the Comments can explain and help us understand completely. Learning the Standard by heart doesn't automatically mean "fully comprehend" the breed, this goes both for breeders and judges. Genetic research on the breed, basic for breeders who desire to operate a serious selection and convenient for judges who desire to be of good service to the breed, are the key to true knowledge of the breed.
As FCI judges and breeders we can claim to have a head start as we possess today one of the morphological standards which can, thanks to its precise biometric data, offer an excellent instrument for future research and work on the breed, and therefore scientifically impose itself upon other standards (the English and the American one), which are obsolete and cynotechnically empiric, hence unable to correspond to a proper and precise view of the morphology of the breed and its functionality. Nevertheless, an attentive comparison between the three Saint Bernard breed standards will bring to light, for example, that the right head-body-limbs proportions are treated properly in all three texts, with a particular reference to the distance elbow-ground and hind angulations (in regard to which even the American standard rivets should be respectively over 50% of height at withers and only moderately flexed, as in all mountain dogs). This point of the standard is in evident contrast with the actual morphological involution (towards a caricature) many American Saint Bernards unexplainably suffered - luckily not all - over the last few decades, producing subjects with roundish heads, small and not angular noses, too short muzzles (less than 36% of total head length, as prescribed by the Standard), with the tendency of double convergency, reduced skull structure, flat skulls with wrinkles, too small teeth, generally too short necks, trunks which tend to be square with overinclined croups and overflexed posterior angles (as in the German shepherd), forearms always too short with the distance elbow-ground much less than 50% of height at withers, barrel chests which can often reach below the elbow, with the tendency to adiposeness and tissue laxity (which is a reflection of lymphatism, as a consequence of the digestive type of constitutional habitus - which is to be considered pathological within this breed). It is not only that these dogs are not in line with the classical Saint Bernard type prescribed by the FCI standard, but they COMPLETELY DIVERGE FROM THEIR OWN STANDARD, and that is a true anomaly of selection, which USA judges and breeders are called to find a remedy to.
The purpose of a judge on a dog show is certainly to point out the best subjects so that the breeders could take them as an example for future genetic improvement undertaken at the beginning of the 19^th century.
Of course, this is something that should happen always but seldom does, remaining a pure utopia... Let's just say: if specialty shows and reunions didn't exist, on which usually the FCI Standard is properly applied by specialized judges who are technically updated, what would happen to our Alpine Giant? We would simply have the birth of a new Saint Bernard "Bonsai" breed, which would be in complete disregard of our standard (which should be always abided by all judges and breeders) with no European passport and non FCI...

All of this occurs for a mixture of causes such as:

1. The consequence of globalisation in the dog world, with the introduction in Italy - as well as in other European countries - of dogs coming from countries which do not abide to FCI standards. As we just saw, in the countries where FCI Standards are applied, the breed involuted in typologies that are often caricatural and potentially pathological (in clear contrast with their own referential standards) and either way very distant from the functional work-dog type of classic derivation described by the actual FCI Standard.

2. The imperfect knowledge of the morphological standard and above all the lack of necessary knowledge of the comments to the standard of many judges, especially the non-specialized ones, accentuated by the lack of interest in the initiatives of updating and technical events organized constantly by the club. The club has among its goals the encouragement and improvement of proper knowledge on the breed by organizing frequent conventions, seminars and congresses of technical nature.
3. Breeders or wannabes who, for not better specified reasons, forget that the Saint Bernard belongs to the 2nd group of canine breeds (guardianship, defense, utility) and not to the 9th (companionship). As members of the Technical board of CISB, we are incensed by the complaints of numerous members who, lately in particular, witness the dismissal of their animal just because they displayed a slight prognatism (undershot bite) or because they wouldn't maintain trot as gait in the small ring on the generic show, but would prefer gallop instead, or - even worse - because they miss PM1 or because they do not fit in the ideal square, or display limbs considered to be "too long" or croups "too straight".
From this short set of examples one can tell that far too many judges are not at all aware of the contents of the new FCI Standard - implemented on April 1st 2004 (translated from German to Italian by Dr. Giovanni Morsiani, published by ENCI and sent to all judges) - but also that they lack the knowledge about the basis of the breed, such as that a slight prognatism (convergent dog) is considered to be the proper bite for a Saint Bernard and the lack of PM1 is tolerated by the Standard. Moreover the Saint Bernard has the typical constitution of a mountain dog, with a horizontal (straight) croup and long, moderately angled limbs - which allow him to derive the hind drive uphill and to move on deep snow without toiling - and is therefore more of a galloper. Furthermore, if the body length exceeds by 12-15% height at withers (represented by a dog who can be inscribed in an ideal square, as prescribed by the Standard), the dog can't ever fit the square (whereas that is the case of the so-called "bonsai" Saint Bernards we mentioned earlier).
Let's skip the nobility topic (also basic to the breed), which would need a separate and complex volume. We'll just say that regarding nobility, the head and the expression of the animal play the most important role, and that nobility can be spotted out and assessed only by those who are truly close to the breed. But CISB will no longer tolerate judgements which have nothing to do with the FCI Standard. All of us are FCI judges and breeders and as such we have to respect FCI standards and rules.
Therefore, anybody who assesses a Saint Bernard will have to keep in mind at least the few following concepts of major importance:

1. Typology of the head: the head must be angular, facial muscles are flat on an imposing skull bone structure, ears set is high - which contributes to the characteristic angularity of the superior part of the head, no wrinkles - or better if present but hardly perceivable, and in specific areas of the head: at the level of superciliar and supraorbital arches, the nose is wide and square, massetters never overcharged, the eye is exclusively of rhomboidal shape and set in sub-frontal position (approximately at 15º on horizon with the eye lid rim), presence of virtual lines which cross specific points of repere (reference) and determine a series of well defined geometrical figures, flew junction tends to shape a reversed "U" as an immediate consequence of a wide mandibular plateau with canine teeth wide apart and externally straddled , from a frontal prospective a circle could be drawn inside the profile of the muzzle having the same curve range of the circle inscribed in the skull, very wide and flat anterior platform of the muzzle shaped as an isosceles rectangle trapezium (see comments to the standard by Dr. Antonio Morsiani), muzzle of parallel lateral faces - never cone-shaped or converging towards the tip, flat nose-bridge (a mutton-shaped nose-bridge is to be penalized), and the anterior superior brim of the nose is set on the vertical line of the muzzle, never protrusive towards the front in particular if bond to a cone-shaped muzzle (hypotype) or over-receding which would had the outcome of a too short muzzle - less than 36%, as prescribed (overtype).

2. Large size: let's remind ourselves that what we're dealing with here is the Giant among canine breeds. It is therefore desirable a great corporeal evolution, with massive body surface and adequate body volumes.

3. Maximum height at withers (the standard contemplates the maximum height of 90 cm or more as long as the balance of the whole is kept). Naturally the largeness should not be considered a characteristic that is an end in itself or exploited to amaze. The largeness of size must be considered exclusively from a zootechnical prospective; that means functional to the type of work the dog is employed for. A dog of great stature but with balanced relations between size-volume-weight, proper musculature and imposing bone structure, of fine build, angles and proportions, will be able to perform fluid, smooth motion but strong and enduring as well as worthwhile for the tasks he is expected to perform as a huge work-type dog. The general rule "large dog equals bad-moving dog" is denied not only by the attainments of correct cynognostics applied to great molossians such as the Saint Bernard, but also from actual observation of the animal in nature. As our friend Giuseppe Colombo Manfroni soundly states in his beautiful book on the Italian Bracco: "does a pig, for it is smaller in size, move smoother than a horse?" No greater truth, and the same goes for our Saint Bernard as well. Trying to "midget" the breed in order to gain an alleged healthfulness of the small and medium sized dogs, demolishing the century-long genetic drag towards great size - essential in work-tasks - is a terrible zootechnical error which reflects alas on all the Saint Bernard breeding and on its actual conspicuous decadence. Therefore the equation "large dog equals monster-dog" is denied not only by the history of the breed (the list of the large size subjects famous for their functional beauty and their correct gait could fill pages of an entire book), but also by the proper application of selection of the incontrovertible laws of balance among the different anatomical regions, of correct and appropriate angles and proportions which could turn a "compensated giant" such as our Saint Bernard into a true heavy athlete, with the agility and reactivity of a medium weight but obviously of greater might and resistance to fatigue, able to move smoothly as his barycentre is placed far above the ground (long limbs and large size) and with a not too wide quadrangle prop, hence with the proper dose of instability which will give the impulse to the physiologic dynamism of the dog.
Which is practically a heavy mesomorphus with a strong aptitude towards motion. There is no doubt the Saint Bernard is more difficult to raise than many other breeds, which for their mediocre size and typology embody the maximum zootechnical achievement for those who do not really care for the true Saint Bernard, but it is possible to accomplish through conscious and no profit selection (there are many examples of it and those are the prototypes of the breed which granted its multisecular success).

4. Absence of adiposity. Lynfatic subjects, with evident wrinkles and tissue laxity are to be heavily penalized. This is a direct consequence of a digestive type of constitutional habitus, absolutely pathological and deleterious for the breed. The Saint Bernard must be defined by general dryness (huskiness) and moderation of displayed wrinkles.

5. Athleticism. Important criteria for reasons already discussed when speaking of large size.

6. Gait. Bear in mind that a Saint Bernard built according to the aforementioned criteria would definitely wear out his conductor after a few rounds round the show ring, because even at trot - a gait certainly not suitable for him - he would cover considerable terrain.
This point in particular is the one that draws many judges to the wrong assessment, as they tend to prefer to the build and gait typical of the Saint Bernard breed, the gait of other breeds such as the German shepherd, who displays a spectacular trot. But the German shepherd's trot is congenial to that particular breed and it should not be taken as the example of "absolute gait" to be applied to all breeds, including the Saint Bernard. To obtain a German shepherd's kind of trot in the Saint Bernard, his basic body build should be altered: the croup should be modified to an inclination of over 25º and up to 45º, tight tibio-tarsal angles, protrusive hindquarters, chest reaching below the elbows, short limbs (with forearms less than 30% of height at withers) - perfect image of a Saint Bernard off the FCI Standard and, as stated before, off USA standard as well...

In conclusion we can summarize that:

a) The ideal proportion between height at withers and body length is 9:10

b) The distance ground-elbow is more than 50% (long limbs)

c) The distance elbow-withers is 50%-45%

d) Length of the skull is approximately 64% of total head length

e) Length of the muzzle is approximately 36% of total head length

f) Absolute convergency between the cranio-facial axis

All of this very briefly describes the essence of the Saint Bernard dog: any deviation from these crucial evaluational parameters must be always and under any circumstances severely penalized in assessment.
It is upon us - technicians, breeders and judges - the task of persevere in a lifetime long research and study, and upon all of those who will approach with due respect to the Saint Bernard breed the mindfulness of taking with the right foot a step down the fascinating path of the multisecular history of this magnificent breed.