The extinguishing of the Olympic flame recently signalled the end of the 30th Modern Olympic Games, which will be remembered for a long time by a lot of people in many respects. The British surpassed themselves, so to speak, with the organisation and running of the games. They proved just how important careful and detailed preparation is for every event. And this is no different for canine events, although even our biggest events can nowhere near match the participation and response levels of the Olympics, of course. You have to wonder why even little known sports can lure so many viewers to the TV screens while our major events, which undoubtedly exist, are mostly well and truly ignored by the TV stations. This topic was dealt with to some extent during the scientific symposium held last year, at which ways were demonstrated in which this aspect can be improved. It is now up to us to analyse and improve this situation. The likely answer to this question is “action”. Nowadays, this requirement would appear to be best met by the Agility discipline, which can usually also attract large numbers of spectators. What makes "agility" different from the shows? It is the result, which is constantly visible in this type of sport, while a lot of things do not appear entirely transparent to those watching a show. Although spectators do perhaps find out what the result is, as a rule they do not or only rarely learn the reasons for the outcome. So there is a lot that still needs to be done to improve this dilemma. These are real challenges that confront the FCI, as well as its national organisations, right at the beginning of the second century of its existence. Everyone – exhibitors, organisers, judges and visitors – are called on to work together on this problem and make cynology more attractive for interested parties and the media. Maybe some among you already have a few good ideas that could help us further in this matter.

In this spirit, I wish you every success and best regards,

Hans W. Müller
FCI President