American Pit Bull Terrier vs Saint Bernard: Which Suits Your Home?

Nothing about these two breeds is close. A Saint Bernard is a genuine giant — 120 to 180 lbs, up to 30 inches at the shoulder — while the APBT caps out at 65 lbs and 21 inches. That's not a size difference, it's a size-category difference: giant versus large. Everything downstream, from crate size to how much space a sleeping dog takes up on your floor, follows from that gap.

Here's a reversal worth noting: despite being enormous, the Saint Bernard needs less exercise than the APBT — a 2 out of 5 versus the APBT's 4. Saint Bernards were bred for slow, deliberate work, not sprinting, and their size means high-impact exercise can strain their joints anyway. The APBT, by contrast, wants to move and needs an outlet for it daily.

The APBT's coat is nearly maintenance-free (1/5). The Saint Bernard is a different story — moderate grooming (3/5) and high shedding (4/5), whether it's carrying a short or long double coat. Add drooling to the list, which the APBT doesn't have to offer. If hair and slobber management isn't your idea of a good time, the numbers point one direction.

Both breeds score low for apartment living, but the Saint Bernard is worse off — 1 out of 5 versus the APBT's 2. That's a giant-breed problem more than a temperament one: even a calm Saint Bernard takes up an apartment's worth of floor space by itself. Barking is low for both, so it's square footage, not noise, that rules the Saint Bernard out of small spaces.

The APBT actually trains easier — 4 out of 5 versus the Saint Bernard's 3 — but the Saint Bernard is rated friendlier to first-time owners (3/5 versus 2/5). That's a real tradeoff: a slightly less trainable dog that's more forgiving of a new owner's mistakes, against a sharper dog that needs a more experienced hand from day one.

The Saint Bernard wins every household-fit metric on this table — kids (5/5 vs. 4/5), other dogs (4/5 vs. 2/5), and strangers (4/5 vs. 3/5). Its temperament list backs this up: gentle, patient, friendly. If you're weighing this pair for a busy household with kids, pets and visitors coming and going, the data leans firmly toward the Saint Bernard.

Giant breeds pay for their size in years, and the Saint Bernard shows it — 8 to 10 years against 12 to 14 for the APBT, a gap of up to six years. The Saint Bernard's health list includes bloat (GDV) and dilated cardiomyopathy, both serious large-breed conditions. The APBT's list is longer overall but includes more manageable issues like skin allergies alongside the same GDV risk.

The Saint Bernard is the priciest breed in this comparison — cost level 5 out of 5, $150-310 a month, and $2,200-4,200 in year one alone. The APBT runs $80-150 a month and $1,200-2,200 for year one. Over a decade, that gap compounds into thousands of dollars, mostly from food volume, larger medication doses, and bigger everything else.