Meet Bauer, the Internet’s Favorite Bernese Mountain Dog with Vitiligo
A crowd had formed around a large, fluffy dog at the art fair. While canine friends are not a rare sight at many outdoor events, this one—a 5-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog named Bauer—attracted stares and questions. One curious question sparked a conversation, with about ten curious festival-goers now clustered around Bauer’s wagging tail.
“Your dog is so beautiful! What is he? A Great Pyrenees or a mix?” a woman asked Annie Heironimus, the dog’s owner. Annie had her reply ready: “Thank you! Bauer is actually a purebred Bernese Mountain Dog but he has vitiligo so he’s lost his traditional coloring and is now predominantly white.”
Vitiligo’s unofficial spokes-dog
For Annie and Bauer (and the rest of their family, which includes Annie’s husband Sean and their two boys, ages 16 and 4), interactions like these have become commonplace.
Since Bauer began losing pigment at 3 years old, his appearance has sparked so many questions about his breed that the Heironimus family even changed their phone lock screens to show a pre-vitiligo photo of Bauer for easy “proof” that he’s not a Great Pyrenees (or another light-colored breed). When curious folks see Bauer’s transformation, their typical response is one of disbelief, perhaps giving way to puzzlement.
The woman at the art fair that summer day was no different. “What?!” she replied to Annie’s explanation that Bauer has vitiligo. Annie pulled out her phone and flashed evidence of Bauer’s traditional Bernese coloring (mostly black with rust/brown and white, and distinctive facial markings specific to the breed). Bauer’s new fan was shocked, then stumped: “NO WAY! What is vitiligo?”
Annie launched into her standard response, looking down at Bauer while talking. When she looked up, a crowd of about 10 people had circled around, listening to her. “That day shifted my perspective,” she says. “I realized that Bauer is providing a way to connect with strangers and kindly educate people about vitiligo. It’s a responsibility I do not take lightly. He’s also creating moments of happiness for others who can relate to him!”
Creating happiness, kindly educating
While he drew a modest crowd at the art fair that day, Bauer’s virtual fans number into the thousands: Bauer has 5.1k Instagram followers, 7k TikTok followers, and 2 million likes on TikTok. Annie, who manages the accounts, published Bauer’s first Instagram post on June 13th, 2025, and in just a few months, several of the account’s reels have gone viral, with the most popular one racking up 270k likes. Comments on that reel show how deeply Bauer’s transformation resonates, especially among those living with vitiligo.
“As someone who has vitiligo, this has me SOBBING! He is so handsome!🥰”
“I have it too buddy, keep being gorgeous😍”
“I have vitiligo too! It’s amazing to match with such a handsome boy! ❤️”
What the comments also show? A need for further education and awareness around vitiligo (in both humans and animals). Annie sees Bauer’s growing audience as an opportunity for advocacy, noting that she wants “to use Bauer’s platform to make a positive difference and champion the vitiligo community.”
And Annie is no stranger to life with a visible difference: Annie lives with alopecia areata, and is also a cancer survivor who lost her hair a few years ago. This experience gives her the unique opportunity to “attest to the emotions that come with having your body and appearance change without your permission.”
Her own backstory also motivates Annie to keep raising awareness about vitiligo through Bauer’s photos, videos, and in-person interactions. “When I talk about Bauer’s vitiligo to strangers, I come from a place of education first followed by fierce protectiveness for the vitiligo community.”
A “conversation” with Bauer
After coming across Bauer’s photos and videos online, we reached out to Annie to learn more about Bauer’s vitiligo journey and his rise to Internet pup-fame. Annie also shared how her own experience living with an autoimmune condition has equipped her to meet the curiosity and occasional ignorance of Bauer’s fans with empathy, and fuels her to continue raising awareness about vitiligo.
Read our conversation below (this interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity).
Name: Bauer Heironimus (interview questions answered by Annie Heironimus, 38)
Hometown: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Age: 5
Years with vitiligo: 2
Living Dappled: Tell us about your family and what you spend your time doing—your work, hobbies, etc.
Annie Hieronimus: I work at an energy consulting firm in Minneapolis and [my husband] Sean is in IT Leadership. Bauer works as a full time middle brother and part time goofball. Bernese Mountain Dogs have the funniest quirks! As a family, we like to spend our time exploring nearby parks and local events, traveling to northern Wisconsin, and living at the rink since both our boys play hockey. Hockey is actually how Bauer got his name. His full name is Bauer Lemieux. “Bauer” is a popular hockey brand. “Lemieux” is taken from Mario Lemieux, an NHL Hockey Hall of Famer.
LD: “Full time middle brother” sounds like it keeps Bauer busy. What else should we know about Bauer? What does he enjoy, besides goofball antics, of course?
AH: Bauer is a 5-year-old purebred Bernese Mountain Dog. He’ll be turning 6 in December. He’s 91 pounds of pure delight and personality. He’s actually considered on the petite side when stacked up against other male Berners—his wonderful breeders did this intentionally as a way to mitigate big-dog health problems. [Editor’s note: “Berner” is a common nickname for Bauer’s breed.] We keep him as lean, trim and healthy as possible!
Bauer thrives in our Minnesota winters and begrudgingly tolerates Minnesota summers with air conditioning. We take him on walks around our neighborhood or explore nearby nature preserves. His favorite place to be is in northern Wisconsin where he has space to run freely. When our boys play knee hockey in the house, he likes to interrupt their game by stealing the puck—real middle brother behavior. Another favorite pastime of his is being my assistant baker. He is absolutely enamored with sourdough bread. The second I start working with my starter or dough, he is glued to my hip. He will not give me a second of peace until I add a little bit of starter to his bowl as a treat.
LD: When did you first notice vitiligo on Bauer, and how did that make you feel?
AH: Bauer’s vitiligo started in 2023 when he was 3 years old. The first patches of white showed up next to his eyes in the temple region, which then continued to move systematically and symmetrically down his body to his tail. [The] first white patches appeared in May 2023 (Bauer was 3.5 years old). The black [pigment] was nearly completely gone by May 2024 (4.5 years old). The brown markings slowly faded from May 2024 to today. He is left with just a couple very faded light brown spots on his legs. We expect the brown to continue to fade out completely.
Our emotions shifted from curiosity to concern. We took him to his primary vet for an initial exam. They ran tests to rule out other conditions that could cause his vitiligo symptoms—all came back normal. We took him to a second vet clinic for a second opinion when the vitiligo started moving to his neck, torso, and beyond. They reached the same diagnosis of vitiligo. Both vet clinics noted how rare and unusual it is for them to see vitiligo in dogs.
Once he was diagnosed with vitiligo but given a clean bill of health, our original concern changed to relief, acceptance, and pride!
LD: Love that—Bauer is lucky to belong to a family that accepts him unconditionally. How has Bauer’s changing appearance shaped how people react to him during walks or outings?
AH: People LOVE Bauer and Bauer adores the attention. He draws quite the crowd of both adults and children. He’s mis-categorized as a Great Pyrenees or an Irish Cream Golden Retriever so often that we’ve now changed our phone lock screen to a picture of him pre-vitiligo so that we can easily go, “See!”
I personally do not know what it’s like to live with vitiligo, and I don’t pretend to understand the nuanced emotions that come with that diagnosis. However, I do live with alopecia areata, also an autoimmune disorder, and as a cancer survivor who lost their hair in 2021, I can at least attest to the emotions that come with having your body and appearance change without your permission. Losing control over your appearance feels frustrating. I was often told “It’s just hair, it’ll grow back”—nope, stop trying to pacify my very valid feelings. Similarly, when I talk about Bauer’s vitiligo to strangers, I come from a place of education first followed by fierce protectiveness for the vitiligo community.
LD: What a unique position to be in as the owner of a dog with an autoimmune condition. And cheers to you for working to instill both awareness and empathy in those who learn about vitiligo from Bauer. What role has social media played in educating others about canine vitiligo—and how have followers responded to Bauer’s story?
AH: People are going wild for Bauer. I’m getting a healthy level of skepticism from the [online] crowd but mostly pure shock. I can tell by some of the handles and comments that he’s hitting the FYP (“for you page,” a built-in portion of many social media platforms) in all different corners of the globe. I just met a sweet soul from Israel this week who is following Bauer and engaging with his videos—that’s incredible. My favorite though, are the people who are speaking up to either share their own vitiligo journey or taking time to educate others through comments about what vitiligo is. What I’ve learned is that there is A LOT of room for growth through teaching.
I’ve taken time to reflect on how to tackle all of the questions and curiosity. I have an opportunity to use Bauer’s platform to make a positive difference and champion the vitiligo community. Like I said earlier, I don’t take this responsibility lightly. At this time though, I still don’t know what that looks like. I appreciate Living Dappled connecting with us to bridge that gap.
LD: We are so here for that! What are your hopes for Bauer’s future—and as he continues to evolve physically, what do you wish people would remember most about him beyond his appearance?
AH: My goal is to share Bauer with the world, using his story to spread smiles and raise awareness for an important community. I can visualize our destination but I’m working on finding out what the path looks like. It would be incredible to work with an organization that shares our vision who is willing to help us grow his presence! Who wouldn’t want this majestic and photogenic (unofficial) vitiligo mascot on their team?!
Connect with Bauer: BauertheBMD@gmail.com
Follow on Instagram: @BauertheBMD
Follow on TikTok: @BauertheBMD
