The earliest written description of it is that of Friedrich von Tschudi in Das Thierleben der Alpenwelt, published in 1853.

[3][4]: 553  In the late nineteenth century Max Sieber, a forester who had seen the dogs at cattle shows in eastern Switzerland, asked the Schweizerische Kynologische Gesellschaft [de] to recognise the breed;[5] a commission was established with financing from the canton of St. Gallen[5] and the Appenzeller Sennenhund was recognised in either 1896[6] or 1898.

Numbers are stable but the gene pool is narrow; the association is in collaboration with the breed society, the Schweizerischer Club für Appenzeller Sennenhunde, to broaden it.

[13] The ears are set high and are triangular and fairly small; they hang close to the cheeks when the animal is at rest, and are raised and turned forward when it is alert.

[15]: 290 According to the breed standard, the Appenzeller Sennenhund is lively, high-spirited, athletic and suspicious of strangers.