History Main / SaintBernardRescue

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Noveltoons}}'' cartoon "A Mutt in a Rut", Dogface the Dog mistreats a homeless kitten and wishes he was dead. His spirit ascends to Heaven, where he is put on trial at ThePearlyGates for his crimes. His case is proceeded by a St. Bernard judge who gives Dogface a harsh TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. When the St. Bernard runs out of breath he relieves himself by pouring a glass of brandy from the barrel under his head.

* Lampshaded in ''Literature/TheYiddishPolicemensUnion'' when Landsman is rescued from certain death by either exposure or being shot by MenInBlack. He asks the examining doctor where the "big dog with the little thing of brandy around his neck" is. The doctor wants to know if [[TheAlcoholic Landsman is craving a drink]] or [[DeadpanSnarker just likes large, salivating dogs.]]

** In the short "Piker's Peak," the barrel contains a minibar. The dog uses the contents to mix himself a martini.

Saint-Bernard dogs are often depicted in media as carrying barrels of brandy (or, in more kid-friendly media, hot chocolate) around their necks, which was used to warm rescued victims from the cold. The monks of the Saint Bernard Hospice deny that this was ever used in RealLife, and instead the early depiction came from an early painting.

The idea that the dogs could do this, or that a drink could even save someone from hypothermia was [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythbusters examined]] and busted by the ''Series/MythBusters''. Alcohol would, in fact, ''endanger'' their lives because the warming effect is caused by increasing heat flow to the extremities, which would lower the core body temperature and accelerate the onset of hypothermia, though if rescue was imminent it ''might'' have the benefit of delaying frostbite. (That said, dogs are often trained to be able to sniff and dig out people trapped by natural or man-made disasters. The ''handlers'' of the dogs often carried brandy to try to warm up the people the dogs dug up before getting them to safety, which is probably how the myth got started.)

The idea that the dogs could do this, or that a drink could even save someone from hypothermia was examined and busted by the ''Series/MythBusters''. Alcohol would, in fact, ''endanger'' their lives because the warming effect is caused by increasing heat flow to the extremities, which would lower the core body temperature and accelerate the onset of hypothermia, though if rescue was imminent it ''might'' have the benefit of delaying frostbite. (That said, dogs are often trained to be able to sniff and dig out people trapped by natural or man-made disasters. The ''handlers'' of the dogs often carried brandy to try to warm up the people the dogs dug up before getting them to safety, which is probably how the myth got started.)

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'': One short features a Saint Bernard rescuing Popeye. Upon recognizing him from the comics, the dog gives him spinach instead of brandy.

* In the Creator/{{Disney}} short "Alpine Climbers," Pluto falls in the snow and comes out blue and frigid. A Saint Bernard pours his keg of brandy on Pluto's mouth, and a rainbow of colors spreads from Pluto's belly to his extremities as he warms up again.

* Brandy aside, St. Bernard dogs actually do have a history of real-life rescues. The breed originated at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice in the Swiss Alps. (In this context, "hospice" is a sort of monastery that provides travelers with a place to stay.) Originally they were breeding guard dogs but later switched to focusing on mountain rescues, as the Alps were very snowy and hazardous and people could easily find themselves in need of rescue. (Also this was the 1700s, so it's not as if anybody had snowmobiles.) The dogs were thus bred to be strong enough to get through snow drifts and to have a keen enough sense of smell to find people in need. The most famous of these dogs was named Barry, who reportedly saved between 40 and 100 people in the course of his career. One book from 1823 claims that Barry always carried a "little phial" which contained "a reviving liquor for the distressed travellers whom he found among the mountains". (Note that the word "liquor" is used to mean "an alcoholic drink" mostly in the U.S., but the author of this book was British. The "liquor" he mentioned was probably nonalcoholic. Barry's preserved body in the Berne musuem has what definitely looks like a brandy cask, but it's a later addition.) However, the modern Saint Bernard dog is far larger than the Saint Bernards that performed alpine rescues (around the size of a German Shepherd) - a large amount of avalanches in 1816-1818 killed many of them while they were performing rescues which led the monks at the Great St Bernard Hospice to crossbreed them with Newfoundland dogs to keep the breed alive. This cost them their usefulness at mountain rescue since their now-heavy fur would get frozen and weigh them down.

* Brandy aside, St. Bernard dogs actually do have a history of real-life rescues. The breed originated at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice in the Swiss Alps. (In this context, "hospice" is a sort of monastery that provides travelers with a place to stay.) Originally they were breeding guard dogs but later switched to focusing on mountain rescues, as the Alps were very snowy and hazardous and people could easily find themselves in need of rescue. (Also this was the 1700s, so it's not as if anybody had snowmobiles.) The dogs were thus bred to be strong enough to get through snow drifts and to have a keen enough sense of smell to find people in need. The most famous of these dogs was named Barry, who reportedly saved between 40 and 100 people in the course of his career. One book from 1823 claims that Barry always carried a "little phial" which contained "a reviving liquor for the distressed travellers whom he found among the mountains". (Note that the word "liquor" is used to mean "an alcoholic drink" mostly in the U.S., but the author of this book was British. The "liquor" he mentioned was probably nonalcoholic.) However, the modern Saint Bernard dog is far larger than the Saint Bernards that performed alpine rescues (around the size of a German Shepherd) - a large amount of avalanches in 1816-1818 killed many of them while they were performing rescues which led the monks at the Great St Bernard Hospice to crossbreed them with Newfoundland dogs to keep the breed alive. This cost them their usefulness at mountain rescue since their now-heavy fur would get frozen and weigh them down.

* A strange case where it can be {{Justified|Trope}} happens in one of the ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' movie. In that movie, Nobita and co time-travelled to the pre-historic era to stop a time-criminal who have established a personality cult of cavemen, and his temple is in a snowy mountain. A blizzard descended upon them and they fainted one by one (what where they thinking?). However, Nobita is rescued by a ''mammoth'' that dispenses a strange liquid that resuscitates him, via its flail, in the spirit of St. Bernard dogs. Later, it turns out that that mammoth is actually TimePolice robot in disguise, who has been tailing the fellowship to find out the criminal's hideout.

* Brandy aside, St. Bernard dogs actually do have a history of real-life rescues. The breed originated at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice in the Swiss Alps. (In this context, "hospice" is a sort of monastery that provides travelers with a place to stay.) Originally they were breeding guard dogs but later switched to focusing on mountain rescues, as the Alps were very snowy and hazardous and people could easily find themselves in need of rescue. (Also this was the 1700s, so it's not as if anybody had snowmobiles.) The dogs were thus bred to be strong enough to get through snow drifts and to have a keen enough sense of smell to find people in need. The most famous of these dogs was named Barry, who reportedly saved between 40 and 100 people in the course of his career. One book from 1823 claims that Barry always carried a "little phial" which contained "a reviving liquor for the distressed travellers whom he found among the mountains". (Note that the word "liquor" is used to mean "an alcoholic drink" mostly in the U.S., but the author of this book was British. The "liquor" he mentioned was probably nonalcoholic.)

* Brandy aside, St. Bernard dogs actually do have a history of real-life rescues. The breed originated at the Great Saint Bernard Hospice in the Swiss Alps. (In this context, "hospice" is a sort of monastery that provides travelers with a place to stay.) Originally they were breeding guard dogs but later switched to focusing on mountain rescues, as the Alps were very snowy and hazardous and people could easily find themselves in need of rescue. (Also this was the 1700s, so it's not as if anybody had snowmobiles.) The dogs were thus bred to be strong enough to get through snow drifts and to have a keen enough sense of smell to find people in need. The most famous of these dogs was named Barry, who reportedly saved between 40 and 100 people in the course of his career. One book from 1823 claims that Barry always carried a "little phial" which contained "a reviving liquor for the distressed travellers whom he found among the mountains". (This "liquor", if it existed, was not necessarily alcoholic.)

[[folder:Art]]

[[folder:Print Media]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* You can [[TheRedStapler buy the kegs for your Saint Bernard pet]], though it's not recommended you have liquid in them for hygiene reasons due to the dog's tendency to slobber. If you do, alcohol is actually a good choice due to its antiseptic qualities.
* It's not unheard of for rescue animals to be sent out carrying flasks or barrels . . . of ''[[BoringButPractical water]]'', not brandy. While bringing booze to an avalanche victim is counterproductive as detailed above, bringing water can help the victim stay hydrated in the event they can't be immediately reached for whatever reason.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theater]]

-->Sandy! I need the first-aid kit and the avalanche poles! Call for a medevac chopper! And find my collar with the little brandy cask!
* In a ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'' Sunday wallpaper showing [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/2019-08-11/ craft beer labels]] for all the main characters, the label for Sweetheart's Canadian IPA shows her with a barrel round her neck.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' ChristmasEpisode had one of these saving Timmy's BumblingDad from a snow-in. The barrel around its neck contains [[UsefulNotes/ChristmasInAmerica eggnog]], conveniently allowing the writers to skirt the depiction of booze in a kid's show.
* ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'': One short features a Saint Bernard rescuing Popeye. Upon recognizing him from the comics, the dog gives him spinach instead of brandy.

Saint-Bernard dogs are often depicted in media as carrying barrels of brandy around their necks, which was used to warm rescued victims from the cold. The monks of the Saint Bernard Hospice deny that this was ever used in RealLife, and instead the early depiction came from an early painting.

* ''ComicStrip/{Popeye}}'': One short features a Saint Bernard rescuing Popeye. Upon recognizing him from the comics, the dog gives him spinach instead of brandy.

* In Creator/TerryPratchett's ''The Unadulterated Cat'', one chapter imagines what the world would be like if we'd attempted to breed cats to fit all the roles dogs take in society, with the St Bernard being replaced by the St Eric. Many lost mountain hikers have been kept warm by the sheer fury of seeing a St Eric give up looking for them and go to sleep.

* A strange case where it can be {{Justified|Trope}} happens in one of the ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' movie. In that movie, Nobita and co time-travelled to the pre-historic era to stop a time-criminal who have established a personality cult of cavemen, and his temple is in a snowy mountain. A blizzard descended upon them and they fainted one by one (what where they thinking?). However, Nobita is rescued by a ''mammoth'' that dispenses a strange liquid that resuscitates him, via its flail, in the spirit of St. Bernard dogs. Later, it turns out that that mammoth is actually TimePolice robot in disguise, who has been tailing the fellowship to find out the criminal's hideout.

* [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Stoutland]] may resemble a Scottish Terrier more than a Saint Bernard, but it seems to be partially based on one, with its tubby build and habit of rescuing people trapped in snowy mountains. This being a kids' game, it doesn't make any mention of brandy or similar.

** ...[[FridgeBrilliance Which actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.]] Stoutland is a fairly intelligent Pokémon with thick fur, thick fat [[AmbiguousSyntax (by which we mean it has thick layers of fatty tissue under its skin which give it a plump build, not that it has the ability Thick Fat)]] and is big enough for a human to ride on, whereas alcohol merely provides the ''illusion'' of warmth. Stoutland could likely carry a human to safety while ''actually'' keeping them warm and comfortable with its own warmth-trapping hair and soft, warmth-generating blubber.

** ...[[FridgeBrilliance Which actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.]] Stoutland is a fairly intelligent Pokémon with thick fur, thick fat [[AmbiguousSyntax (by which we mean it has thick layers of adipose tissue under its skin which give it a plump build, not that it has the ability Thick Fat)]] and is big enough for a human to ride on, whereas alcohol merely provides the ''illusion'' of warmth. Stoutland could likely carry a human to safety while ''actually'' keeping them warm and comfortable with its own warmth-trapping hair and soft, warmth-generating blubber.

** ...[[FridgeBrilliance Which actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.]] Stoutland is a Scottish Terrier-like Pokémon with thick fur, thick fat, and is big enough for a human to ride on, whereas alcohol merely provides the ''illusion'' of warmth. Stoutland could likely carry a human to safety while ''actually'' keeping them warm with its own hair and blubber.