There is absolutely nothing worse I can think of than a

Novice Breeder ! Please people do your homework first and find an experienced Breeder of many years in St. Bernards. And no I don't mean one of those people who claim to have been raising Saints for many years yet their first show dog or champion, can only be found a few years ago. No one can learn everything about this breed and do it over night, it just can't be done I don't care how smart that person is. This is not something that can be learned in a short time. It takes many years and much experience before the person should ever call themselves a Breeder.

Recently all over the Internet I have seen Web Pages popping up with so many new people who have yes, gotten themselves some females and started breeding St. Bernards. Obviously, they can't know the breed well, so they have simply gone by what ever the person they got their Saints from, told them to do. And many tmes even that person simply has no idea either, and the results from this kind of so called breeder is this. Neither of the person's involved know very much about what they are doing but they are just doing it just the same. Then the outcome is Pot Luck, whether you will get a sound structured puppy from such a person or persons is doubtful, because all they do know about St. Bernards is what ever they have heard from someone else who really didn't know either and the spread of Ignorance continues on. And the reproducing of more problems with this breed continues on. Because everyone involved is not experienced with this breed, the bloodlines or pedigrees for that matter they have no idea how to correctly evaluate a pedigree. Stay away from people who have bred up from what they had to begin with who can't answer any of your questions, and yet really hasn't had much experience in this breed nor did the person they have learned anything from. It is certainly no sin to have a lot of experience in anythng especially being a Dog Breeder. Ask a lot of questions, make sure this person knows their breed, but not only the Standard but also all about the different Bloodlines as well. Make sure the person can describe to you every part of the puppy, and be able to evaluate every part of each puppy in the litter. If that person doesn't even act like they know what the bloodlines are, stay away from people like that. Ask them how many years have they been showing Dogs, and how many champions have they actually produced. How many other pointed dogs have they produced.

I'm so tired of reading Web Pages that start out saying We are a small kennel, ours are raised in the house, and family raised etc. etc. etc. These are not advantages for the new puppy owners. No, St. Bernard puppy needs to be raised strictly inside, being a small kennel means little to no experience usually, and family raised well what litter of puppies aren't family raised? most litters of pups must have a family or humans raising them until they are old enough to go out to their new homes.

To those who I have described here please do your homework before ever breeding your first litter there are too many Health Issues out there today and this has been directly caused by so many different New Novice Breeders who have no idea what they are doing when they put two Saints together and just because you are the owner of a female and AKC calls you the Breeder simply because you are the owner of the female does not make you a St. Bernard Breeder. You are a Novice Breeder, and should not be allowed to reproduce litter after litter of unhealthy pups, or pups that don't remotely ressemble the Breed Standard, call yourself a Breeder, have a kennel name and Web page now. All you are doing is hurting this breed and over populating this breed, and causing innocent folks to have to go to the expense of taking care of the problems and mistakes you have created.