Think Lassie! This would be where those barrels of whiskey would come in handy to warm the stranded person and help ward of the freezing temperatures. Unfortunately, there is no documentation that the dogs ever carried the whiskey barrels!
There is a painting from by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer that shows two dogs saving a man in the snow and one has a barrel around its neck.
It is believed that the artist was being creative, because there is no proof that this practice was used by the monks or the dogs. If people imagined that the dogs were saving people with the aid of whiskey, the fact that the use of the barrels was believed to be true and is now part of their legend is enough. The use of whiskey as medicine was not a new concept and it only made sense that whiskey would be part of a rescue operation!
It just goes to show that it was a believable idea. The dogs were responsible over years for rescuing more than people.
The story goes that the system was so successful that when Napoleon and his , soldiers crossed through the pass between and , not one soldier lost his life. One famous St. Between and , monks at St. Bernard acquired the progenitors of the heroic lineage. The dogs were mastiffs, descended from stout Asiatic breeds meant for war, and slightly smaller than the behemoths we see today.
Their fur was also shorter and their tails longer, but these alpine hounds laid the genetic groundwork for the future of the breed. Bernards were sent out in packs to search for stranded travelers. When they found one, part of the pack would report back to the monks, and the others would attempt to dig out and warm the wanderer. Over time, they would be selected and bred specifically for these traits, resulting in the gentle giants we love today.
By , St. Bernards would be constant companions of marroniers, using their abilities to help smell and dig out travelers who had become lost or buried under snow. Bernards out in small packs without human accompaniment. Able to dig upwards of ten feet after catching a scent, packs would split when a person was found — some staying with the wanderer, and others returning to alert hospice workers.
Bernards are credited with saving over 2, lives between and , when the last documented recovery was made other reports list as the most recent rescue, but no documentation was found. A year old boy was licked awake and led to safety after becoming lost and nearly freezing to death. Edwin Landseer's famous painting, seen above, spawned the legend of the "licker" barrel. Truth to the Legend? What of the famed barrel around the neck? Legend has it that these dogs would carry beer or brandy in order to warm wayward wanderers.
We believe this to be false. Though alcohol can cause a warming sensation in the belly, it actually makes you colder by causing your blood vessels to dilate. Blood rushes to the skin's surface, which is why you may blush and feel hot, but overall body temperature declines rapidly.
More importantly, St. Bernard monks have a source for the legend. The barrels we see were a conjuration of Edwin Landseer, an English painter. As they headed north to conquer somebody or other, the Romans erected a temple to Jupiter there. In , Bernard of Menthon canonized St.
Bernard in and confirmed as patron saint of the Alps in built a hospice on top of the temple ruins as a shelter for travelers. A group of monks maintained the hospice, took care of guests, acted as guides through the pass and acted as search and rescue teams for travelers that had gotten lost or injured. At some point, the monks began to train their dogs, who were brought from the villages in the valleys below to serve as watchdogs and companions, as rescue animals.
It's not clear when dogs were first brought to the hospice or when they were trained for rescue purposes, since the hospice was destroyed by a fire in the late 16th century and its archives were lost.
Historians best guess from outside sources is that dogs first arrived at the monastery between the s and
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