The farm dog from the canton of Bern
Half of a Bernedoodle comes off a Swiss hillside. The Bernese Mountain Dog is one of four Sennenhund breeds from the Alpine cantons, and the Bernese is the one from the country around Bern — the Dürrbach valley in particular, which is why the older Swiss name for the breed is Dürrbächler. It was a general-purpose farm dog rather than a specialist. It moved cattle between pastures, pulled carts of milk and cheese down to the village, and kept an eye on the yard while the household got on with the day.
The look is unmistakable, and it carries straight through the cross. A Bernese is tricolour: jet black over the body, rust above the eyes, on the cheeks, down the front of the legs and under the tail, and white in three places — a blaze up the muzzle and between the eyes, a broad Swiss cross on the chest, and white on the feet and the tip of the tail. The coat is long, slightly wavy, and it shines when the light catches it.
What Bernese owners actually talk about is the manner. Slow to fuss, gentle with children, affectionate without being demanding, and inclined to lean the full weight of itself against whichever leg is nearest.
The water dog on the other side of the cross
The other half is the Poodle, which is not the ornament it is often taken for. The Poodle is a German water dog — the name comes from pudeln, to splash about — bred to retrieve waterfowl out of cold lakes and rivers. Even the show clip started life as a working arrangement: hair left long over the chest and the joints for warmth, the rest taken off so the dog could swim without dragging half a pond behind it.
France took the breed up, refined it, and gave it the reputation it carries today. Along the way it was bred down into a ladder of sizes — the Standard first, then the Miniature and the Toy — and that ladder is what the Bernedoodle’s three sizes are built on.
What the Poodle contributes to the cross is easy to spot in the puppies: the curl, a coat that holds its hair instead of dropping it around the house, and a fast, willing, faintly mischievous kind of intelligence.
Three sizes, and where they come from
The Bernedoodle is a recent cross. It was put together deliberately in Canada in the early 2000s, with the aim of pairing the Bernese temperament with the Poodle’s coat and quickness, and it caught on quickly enough that all three sizes were established within a few years.
A standard Bernedoodle comes from a Standard Poodle parent and is a large dog — heavy-boned, tall at the shoulder, and often somewhere in the seventy-to-ninety-pound range as an adult. A miniature comes from a Miniature Poodle parent and usually settles between about twenty-five and fifty pounds, which is the size most households find easiest to plan around. A tiny is smaller again, bred through the toy end of the Poodle ladder, and fits comfortably into an apartment.
Adult size in a crossbreed is a projection rather than a promise, and littermates can finish in different places on the scale. If size matters for your car, your lease or your stairs, ask our staff about the individual puppy and what its parents are like. That is a better answer than any chart.
Tricolour, and everything else a litter can do
Most Bernedoodles carry a wavy or curly coat that holds its hair rather than dropping it, and some carry a flatter, straighter coat closer to the Bernese side. All three types are handsome, and all three want combing; the curlier the coat, the more of it there is to work through.
Colour is where a Bernedoodle litter earns its reputation. The one everybody asks after is the full tricolour — black, white and rust arranged the way a Bernese wears it, with the blaze and the chest markings intact. It is the least predictable outcome of the cross and it turns up when it turns up. Black and white is common and very smart indeed. Black and rust, solid black, sable, merle and phantom all appear as well, and the white can run from a complete Swiss cross down to a few toes.
Two puppies out of the same litter can look almost unrelated, and the puppies in the store this month will not be the ones you saw on a screen last week. That is worth knowing before you set your heart on a particular pattern.
Bernese calm with Poodle wit
What people come for is the temperament, and on the whole they get it. A grown Bernedoodle is affectionate, unhurried and thoroughly attached to its household. It would rather be in the room with you than anywhere else, it treats visitors as good news, and it gets on with children, with other dogs and — given a sensible introduction — with the cat.
The Poodle side keeps the lights on. This is a quick dog that reads a household well, learns a routine inside a week, and will invent a game if nobody else is offering one. Give it five or ten minutes of training, a scatter feed or a puzzle feeder somewhere in the day and you get a noticeably more settled dog in the evening.
Adolescence, somewhere between six and twelve months, is when a clever dog checks whether the rules are still the rules. They are, and consistency is the whole answer. A standard Bernedoodle puppy is a big puppy, and it stays a puppy in the head for a good while after it has finished growing in the body. That lag is where much of the charm lives: a seventy-pound dog that still believes it is a lap dog and arranges itself accordingly.
Short absences are worth building into the routine from the first week, with a chew to work on and no ceremony on the way out or the way back in.
Combing, walking and the weekly rhythm
The coat is the part of Bernedoodle ownership with a schedule attached. A comb and a slicker three or four times a week, working in sections right down to the skin rather than skating over the top, keeps a wavy or curly coat open and comfortable. The places that want the most attention are behind the ears, under the collar or harness, in the armpits and down the trousers. Most dogs settle onto their side and doze once the rhythm starts, and a lot of owners come to look forward to the half-hour.
Somewhere in the second half of the first year the puppy coat gives way to the adult one. The coat wants combing more often for a few weeks during the changeover; keep the routine going through it and you come out the other side with an adult coat in good order. Most owners also settle into a standing appointment with a groomer every couple of months for the feet, the face and a tidy, and a groomer who knows doodle coats is worth finding early rather than at the last minute.
Exercise is moderate and sociable rather than demanding. A good walk or two a day, a game with some rules in it, and a few minutes of thinking work suits most adults very well — this cross would rather use its head than run. In a Florida or Tennessee summer, the early and late hours are the pleasant ones for both of you, with shade, water and a cool floor through the middle of the day.
Come and meet the Bernedoodle puppies
A photograph of a Bernedoodle is a colour scheme. In front of you it is a soft, heavy, leaning sort of dog that comes over, puts its chin on your knee and settles there while you make up your mind. The coat is denser in the hand than it looks on a screen, and the difference between a mini and a standard is far more obvious in a room than in a description.
Our Bernedoodle puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s parents were like and how it has been getting on with its littermates. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit on the floor with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.