Detours: Saint Bernard

With big smiles, huge noses and tongues that can clear an avalanche with a few licks, Saint Bernard dogs romp around like small loveable trucks, perpetually in fifth gear. The best place to visit these amazing hounds is where they originated - in the town they were named after in southern Switzerland.

For 300 years, cowled hermits bred and cared for St Bernard dogs in the Grand St Bernard Hospice, built around AD1050 by a cleric, Bernard de Menthon, who was later declared a saint. The monks started breeding a large dog to accompany them on their travels. Thus evolved a dog with a broad chest to push through snow, rolls of fat to keep it warm and a keen nose to find the trail.

The hospice stands at the centre of an ancient travellers' path that crossed Europe, a road often used by armies and bandits, so the monastery became a refuge for many travellers - not all of whom made it without mishap. The dogs' keen noses began to find people lost in the mountains or buried in avalanches and so the tag of 'rescue hound' snowballed into legend.

The most famous St Bernard dog was Barry the First - each subsequent generation has had a Barry. During the early 1800s Barry I found more than 40 people buried in snow. But now there are now only four monks left at the hospice - not enough to care for the dogs, each the size of a miniature horse. When the monks sent out a distress call a few years ago the nearby town of Martigny answered. The Barry Foundation (named after Barry I) was set up to take over the dogs' breeding and care, although the hounds still spend the summer with the monks.

At the Barry Foundation's kennels, visitors can pat the dogs and watch them at play and training and even go for a 'picnic with the Saints'.

The dogs are friendly and love to be with people; they're slobbering, gentle giants that enjoy playing, training and cuddles.