Malamute or Bernese: An Easier Dog With a Much Shorter Life

Cancer sits on the Bernese Mountain Dog's condition list, and histiocytosis sits there with it. That second entry is the reason the lifespan figure is what it is.

Histiocytic sarcoma is a cancer arising from immune system cells, and it appears in Bernese Mountain Dogs at rates far above any other breed. It is aggressive, it spreads early, and it typically presents in middle age — often as lameness, weight loss, lethargy or breathing difficulty depending on where it starts. Treatment options are limited and outcomes are usually poor.

There is no screening test. What you can do is buy from a breeder who will discuss the age and cause of death of dogs in the line openly rather than deflecting, keep the dog lean, and treat unexplained lameness, weight loss or lethargy in a middle-aged Bernese as a reason to investigate rather than watch.

It is worth being clear-eyed rather than fatalistic. Plenty of Bernese reach ten, and every year of one is a good year. But anyone choosing this breed should do it knowing the number.

The Malamute's burden is orthopaedic, endocrine and neurological rather than oncological, and it lives three to four years longer on average.

The Bernese needs around forty-five to sixty minutes of steady walking a day. It is a draft breed rather than a running breed, and many enjoy carting or drafting work, which suits the temperament and the build.

What it should not do is anything high-impact while growing. A large breed puppy that reaches a hundred pounds needs restricted forced exercise until the growth plates close: no jogging, no cycling alongside, no repeated stairs, and no jumping. Keep it visibly lean and never supplement calcium.

The Malamute needs two hours and it wants to pull. Carting, scootering, canicross or long hikes are what satisfy it; a walk does not. An under-exercised Malamute digs up a garden and leaves.

Heat limits both, and the Bernese more so — it is explicitly heat sensitive, and a black-coated mountain dog in a warm climate needs summer exercise confined to the cool ends of the day, shade, and no parked cars.

Neither coat should ever be clipped, since a double coat insulates against heat as well as cold.

Both rate 5/5 with children and 4/5 with strangers. Both are demonstrative and neither is any use as a guard dog — a Malamute will show a burglar the garden and a Bernese will lean on him.

The Bernese is the easier household dog beyond that. 4/5 trainability against 3/5, 5/5 with other dogs against 3/5, and 2/5 barking against 3/5. It is soft-natured and slightly sensitive, and it does best with gentle consistent handling rather than firmness.

The Malamute's social complication is other dogs, where same-sex intolerance is common and usually appears at social maturity around two years old rather than in puppyhood.

Its other complication is containment. The Malamute's own breed notes call it an extreme escape artist: it digs, climbs, works at latches and travels once loose. A fence dug in at the base and secured gates are the baseline, and its recall should never be treated as a safety measure.

A Bernese is far more inclined to stay where its people are, which for many households is the practical difference that matters most.

The Bernese runs $120–$250 a month against the Malamute's $150–$300, and $1,800–$3,200 against $2,000–$4,000 in the first year.

Grooming is 3/5 against 4/5. The Bernese has a medium double coat that mats behind the ears and on the trousers and needs brushing through a couple of times a week, more when it drops. The Malamute's thicker coat needs an undercoat rake and several sessions during two heavy blows a year, and it sheds more year-round at 5/5 against 4/5.

Both are deep-chested and both carry a real bloat risk. Learn the signs — unproductive retching, a distending abdomen, restlessness — and know where the nearest out-of-hours surgery is.

The Bernese's other testable items are von Willebrand's disease, a clotting disorder worth screening before any surgery, and degenerative myelopathy, which has a DNA test.

The Malamute's are inherited polyneuropathy, which also has a DNA test, and eye certification for hereditary cataracts. Hip and elbow scores apply to both, as numbers you can see.