Dogs weren’t just man’s best friend in previous centuries: they offered protection, helped hunters and herders, occasionally used for sport, and much like today bred and judged based on their breeding. Dog shows have been around since a local committee of hunters decided to gather and compare their four-legged companions to settle which one represents their breed best.

On this day, June 28, in 1859, the world’s first official dog show was held in the town of Newcastle upon Tyne. The Newcastle show limited breeds to only pointers and setters, but a second show held in Birmingham five months later also allowed spaniels.

The dogs competing were hardly purebreds, and the owners themselves had little conception of breed standards. By 1887 a number of exemplary types of each breed were picked, and set as the standard for the rest. As a newspaper report from that year read, “If mistakes had been made in those days dog shows and dog breeding might have collapsed. But in the main the judgment bestowed upon dogs has been correct, and if types and the nicety of points have altered in some breeds more than others, the correct lines and true characters of class have been wonderfully preserved.”