Barry was a St Bernard rescue dog in the Swiss Alps during the early 1800s who saved lost travelers and a child. Trained at the Hospice of St. Bernard, his legacy is preserved in a museum in Bern.
Barry is a legend among the people of Switzerland. He is known as one of the ancestors of the current St Bernard breed, which was also called the hero of the mountains. Do you want to know why? In this video by an animal expert, we explain the story of Barry the dog who rescued more than 40 people in the Swiss Alps. The story of this dog begins around 1800. Barry was raised in the famous Hospice of St. Bernard, a convent located in the High Peaks at over 2000 meters above sea level. Father Louis was responsible for training and caring for him to turn him into a rescue dog. The decision to name him Barry was due to the Varnish dialect, meaning from the very beginning, Father Lewis realized that Barry had great rescue skills. For this reason, it was really easy to train him to locate and help hikers who got lost in the snow in the mountains. The convent where Barry was staying was located on a pass between Switzerland and Italy through which many travelers passed who sometimes fell victim to avalanches or got lost due to the heavy snow. Barry had his own initiative and did not need the monks to give him orders. He himself went out into the mountains to look for people who needed his help. When he found a lost traveler, Barry would run back to tell the monks who knew when they saw him that he had found someone on the mountain. Apparently, Barry always liked to work alone and had a kind of gift for detecting the presence of people who needed his help. He undoubtedly stood out as the bravest dog in the hospice as he was not afraid of avalanches and knew every corner of the mountains. After the death of his mentor, Father Luis, Barry was never the same. The monks at the hospice explained that from that moment on, the dog became even more reserved and solitary. Barry spent most of his life wandering the mountains, always focused and alert, waiting for signs that someone needed help. It is believed that this dog saved the lives of over 40 people. Although his most famous rescue was that of a child. Apparently Barry found a child frozen in an ice cave. Upon seeing him, he he decided to warm his body by licking him and took him to the hospice so that the monks could revive him. The young boy survived this terrible event thanks to Barry's rescue. For all his great feats, Barry became the most famous rescue dog in Switzerland. After 12 years in the monastery, a monk took Barry to the city of Bern where he died in late 1814. His body was donated to the Natural History Museum in Bern, which has a permanent exhibition dedicated to this wonderful dog. Tell us what you think of this story. Discover another dog that was considered a hero. In the video above. Until next time, experts.
