The Alpen Yodel hound is believed to have been bred by the renowned Swiss dog breed Dr. Emile Schezeinfuggelhoffer, who initially achieved fame due to the success of his medical practice, and also the sheer difficulty of spelling his name. In 1839, three hundred and thirty four consecutive attempts were made to spell his names correctly, and all of them failed. It wasn’t until 1841, when a crack team of linguists under the direction ofDr. Hans Zibble, of Vienna University were able to establish the correct spelling.
Dr. Schezeinfuggelhoffer (from now on to be referred to as ‘Dr. S.’ so as to save on ink) was a keen amateur yodeler, who greatly enjoyed practising the Swiss art.
Unfortunately, his wife, Frau Schezeinfuggelhoffer (formerly Fraulein Pof) failed to share his love of yodeling, in fact she detested it, and banished him to practising as far away from the house as possible. Seeking solace, and a good place to practice, Dr. S retreated to the alps to further his art. While now able to practice unhindered, Dr. S. felt somewhat lonely, as living in a very remote part of Switzerland, it was almost impossible to find people to practice yodeling with.
Reasoning that as many dogs like to bay at the moon, Dr. S hit upon the idea of developing a new breed of dog so as to provide a companion for himself, and other isolated yodelers with unreasonable wives.
Dr. S wanted a hardy breed that was able to cope well with the sometimes harsh conditions in the alps. So using a Pyrenean mountain dog dog seemed a naturally good start. Pyrenean mountain dogs are a very large breed, with a correspondingly large and healthy appetite, so Dr. thought about crossing it with a Jack Russell terrier, so as to create a new breed of a more manageable size, and also to reduce the food bill. Fortunately for Dr. S. a friend from the next valley had a Jack Russell who was very vocal, and could in fact be heard an entire valley away. Anyone familiar with Jack Russells will know that they don’t actually know that they are a small dog anyway, and so the breeding process went smoothly.
Later on, Swiss mountain rescue teams experimented with pairing Yodel hounds with St, Bernards, the idea being that the Yodel hound would use it's disttinct voice to alert the St. Bernard to a climber in need.
Dr. Schezeinfuggelhoffer later re-married a Miss Claudia Zunkenhuffbozugler, and they combined their family names into one double-barrelled one. It remains unspellable to this day.