WHICH CAME FIRST, DOG SHOWS OR PEDIGREES?

CinDee Byer, Breed Clubs Editor

Dogs were the first animal to be domesticated in 13000 BC but it was 1859 before the Brits held the first pedigreed dog show and AKC wasn't formed in the U.S. until 1859.

It is through the eyes of a breed historian that I took issue with some current assumptions. For Example: Mr. Worboys believes a pedigree “fixation” happened in the Victorian era. Not so. Humans have been recording the family trees of plants, animals, and humans as far back as 7000 years ago.

Selective breeding and recording animal pedigrees became popular during the agricultural industrialization. The first animal recorded with a detailed, certified pedigree was not a dog, it was a “breed” of horse. The ancestry (pedigree) of Arabian horses was penned on parchment paper with the seal of royalty affixed.  These ancestral documents were carried in a leather pouch around the horse’s neck in order to identify each individual animal.  Pedigreed animals were and are more valuable than non-pedigreed animals because they not only have consistent mental and physical attributes associated with their breed but more importantly, such animals more reliably reproduce themselves.

Farm dogs ran free and interbred with other dogs in their area. Those matings were often incestuous. As nature dictates, mutations came to the surface and only the strong survived. This process set the genes and type for the dogs in that particular area. Dogs began to become "breeds" according to the areas they lived in and were so named, such as Chinese Chow, English Bull Terrier, German Shepherd Dog, Lakeland Terrier, Old English Sheepdog, Tibetan Spaniel.

People began to see purpose in such dogs, brought them into their homes and began recording their breeding history. Types of dogs were often referred to by the name of the person who bred them. Examples are the Doberman (developed by Louis Doberman) and the Gordon Setter (named for the Castle Of Gordon.

The first dog shows were held at farmers markets, in the town squares on farms and in fields. It was a time for breeders to come together, discuss breeding specimens and research pedigrees. The “Victorian era dog show” (approximately 1820 through 1914) did not create anything that wasn’t already there.

Many new breeds and varieties of dogs developed with new inventions of travel - automobiles, trains and planes!  Breeders had the ability to evaluate dogs from other areas and to show off their own dogs to other breeders.

That is how new breeds were made and why the world fell in love the purebred dog. Just think… today we can see and evaluate different breeds of dogs from around the globe with a click of the mouse!

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