WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!
“WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR WITH THE AKC AND THE KENNEL CLUB IN ENGLAND, AS WELL AS OTHER REGISTRIES, BUT DID YOU KNOW THAT THE FCI WAS FOUNDED IN 1911 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE KENNEL CLUBS OF AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND THE NETHERLANDS?” in 1911 under the auspices of the kennel clubs of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and The Netherlands? It is now the governing body for numerous kennel clubs throughout the world. In 1978, China decided to reform its national economic setup and opened its doors to the rest of the world, and is now a major player in all phases of global trade. China has also become very involved in our growing dog-related sport and has two governing kennel clubs; the Chinese Kennel Union, which is an FCI club, and the NGKC, which is based on a system very similar to that of the AKC. On December 25, 1991, the old Soviet Union was dissolved into 15 independent states. Since the break-up, many of these states/countries have also become members of the FCI. The Ukrainian Kennel Club became an FCI member in 1991 and has over 100 local clubs with approximately 300,000 dogs registered across some 260 different breeds, with the Ukrainian studbook registering about 40,000 dogs annually. In 2017, Kyiv, in Ukraine, hosted the Euro Show 2017 where over 20,000 dogs were exhibited. Just like Ukraine, the Russian Kennel Federation (RKF) was established in 1991 and became an FCI member in 2003. The RKF has approximately 5.5 million registered dogs and over 1,400 dog clubs.
SO MANY CHANGES So many things have changed since 1967, and although we take things for granted, many of the changes have enriched not only our lives but also our sport. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first man-made satellite into orbit. The satellite was known as Sputnik. The satellite itself was not capable of much as it circled the earth. What it did, however, was send an alarming message to America that while our scientists and engineers were designing bigger, better cars, TV sets, and other things, the Soviet Union had been focusing on less frivolous material things—and they were planning on winning the Cold War because of it. The result was the start of the Space Race, where science and technology would be developed to benefit man in so many ways. During the Space Race, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed in the early 1960s that America would send a man to walk on the moon in that decade. On July 20, 1969, the prophecy was complet- ed as Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. The results of those efforts are still being felt, because the technol- ogy developed from the space program continues to make a huge impact on our lives. For those of us who have been showing dogs for many years, we remember buying the Rand McNally Atlas so that we could have the most up-to-date maps to assist us in finding various show sites throughout the country. There was no doubt that many arguments occurred between drivers and passenger-navigators as we went in search of those fairgrounds and other sites in small-town America. You had better have your judging program with the directions to some of those sites or you may have never made it! THE GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM Did you know that research for the Global Positioning System (GPS) started way back in 1962 when a group of scientists from M.I.T. and other institutions proposed a “Galactic Network” of computers that could talk to each other? They felt such a network of computers would enable various government leaders the abil- ity to communicate even if the Soviets destroyed the traditional telephone system. In October of 1969, the system delivered its first computer mes- sage from one computer at a research lab at UCLA to a second one at Stanford University. Those computers of the day were said to be the size of a small house. During the rest of 1969 and throughout the 1970s, the systems and technology grew. The GPS is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. Today’s GPS was started by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1973 and is now said to have an accuracy of about 16 feet. The Cold War and the Space Race are part of the reason we have GPS today and no longer need all those maps, and why we can gen- erally find just about any place on earth with just our phones. It is also noted that much of this same technology was used to develop and improve our cell phone service and our ability to be instantly connected to the world. A WORLD OF CHANGE A world of change also opened up the world of purebred dogs. There are many large and great countries in our world, and many of these countries have embraced our sport of purebred dogs. We are all familiar with the AKC and The Kennel Club in England, as well as other registries, but did you know that the FCI was founded
94 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, APRIL 2022
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