About Us

"Gorsebern Bernese" is our kennel, based in Aberdeenshire, Scotland - and began in 2015 after being a dream for many years. Although primarily ran by myself Rachel, it wouldn't be possible without the support of my husband Toby and our children - who sacrifice a lot for me to have the dogs and puppies.

I have always been a dog lover and was brought up with various breeds, mostly mongrels but in my teenage years there were giant and large breeds, which I have always favoured. I was always that child that loved to watch Crufts and pick out my "winners"

In 2005, whilst living in Germany, I saw a puppy needing a home. I had no idea what breed he was, how big he would get or anything else about him - but something in his face made my heart melt and I took him home and named him Barney. A german vet told me that he was a Berner Sennenhund - or Bernese Mountain Dog, and that was the start of my love of the breed. Barney was a beautiful, loyal and sweet natured boy, who I later found out, had come from a puppy farm. Not long after he moved back to the UK with me, he sadly passed away age 4.

After being introduced to the breed by Barney and doing extensive research on it, I knew I wanted a Bernese to always be our family pet. However, after what had happened with Barney, I wanted to be sure where my Bernese had come from and that it was as healthy as possible. It became obvious during my research of the breed in the UK that there were many health and longevity issues, and trying to "get in" the breed, even as an owner, is not easy.

I came up against many hurdles in my search for a pup, which only made my resolve stronger. I had never really considered breeding before, but the more I learnt, the more I realised that I really wanted to get involved in trying to add something and improve this breed that I loved so much.

It took me nearly two years to find my first girl Maggie and she was the most difficult, naughty, stubborn and strong willed pup I have ever known, but she taught me a lot and I will forever love her and be thankful - even for the birthday cake she ate before I even got to so much as sniff it! 

Over the past few years, I have spent many hours working hard on learning about genetics, health testing, diet, vaccinations and many other things that affect the health of dogs, inparticular Bernese.

I am an advocate of educating others and helping them to understand the breed and the issues it has, in order to help potential owners choose pups from breeders who do health test and produce carefully planned litters. In doing this, the hope is that it will deter people from purchasing pups from one of the "mass producers" that are known for producing puppies from dogs that either have no health tests done at all, or their results are less than desirable.

After being on the receiving end of some less than helpful people, struggling to find somewhere on social media that was genuinely friendly and informative, and talking to many potential owners that felt the same as myself - I set up a Facebook group called Bernese Help and Chat UK - with the aim of giving people a friendly and non judgemental place to ask questions and discuss the breed. The group is doing very well and is becoming extremely popular.

If you would like to join us, just click the Facebook icon below.

Thank you for taking the time to read a little bit about me and my descent into the world of Bernese!

Rachel x