It used to be that interested tourists could take walkies and then have a photo taken with a St Bernards dog, decked out in traditional garb, including a barrel of hooch around it’s neck and a Toblerone in it’s paws. The dogs were suitably unimpressed with all the fuss and as yet one has never been snapped with a smile. A spokesdog for the breed intimated that he was more than happy that he would no longer have to stand around in the cold, sometimes a little disheveled and not looking at his best, after a night on the tiles, (chasing cats) and was quoted thus “Woof” . . . when told he was being retired. 

St Bernards are prized for their their strength, weather-resistant coats and superior sense of smell. They are well-equipped to guide and rescue travelers or perhaps rescue the unfortunates who get buried in avalanches. Once found the dogs could offer sustenance in the form of a swig of Brandy from the barrels they were carrying. Really? No, that’s a myth The barrels we see around the dogs' necks in paintings and cartoons was the invention of the painter Edwin Landseer. In 1820, Landseer produced a work titled ‘Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler’. The painting portrays two Saint Bernards standing over said distressed traveler, one dog barking at next door’s kids, the other attempting to revive the traveler by licking his hand, and whispering sweet nothings in his ear. The dog doing the licking has a rather rough tongue and a barrel strapped around its neck which Landseer claimed contained brandy. Despite the fact that brandy wouldn't be something you'd want if you were trapped in a blizzard — alcohol causes blood vessels to dilate, resulting in blood rushing to your skin and your body temperature decreasing rapidly — and that the dogs never carried such barrels, the collar keg stuck in the public's imagination and the image has endured.

The mayor of Zermatt, Christophe Buergin, says two local firms have agreed to stop providing dogs for the photos following claims from animal rights activists that the canine models were not treated well. The STS have been vocal for a while in their criticism of the photo sessions as an "unworthy spectacle" and recently started proceedings against one of the operators, accusing it of breaking animal welfare rules. Some dogs were being kept in "miserable conditions", it claimed.

Christophe Buergin said the two local firms providing the service were in talks with tour operators to come up with alternative offerings for visitors to the Matterhorn.Ideas put forward so far included offering photo shoots with an alphorn - a traditional herdsman's instrument - or with a person in a St Bernard costume sporting a traffic cone on their heads to symbolise the Matterhorn. The mayor told local paper Walliser Bote he expected the practice of offering photos with St Bernards would phased out by next winter. The non-profit organisation that looks after the St Bernard breeding kennels in the Swiss Alps, the Barry Foundation, said it would be prepared to help find a new home for the animals from Zermatt if necessary and would also look after the barrels too, hic!  A fitting end to this ‘shaggy dog story'.