 Both Darwin’s book and the first dog shows drew much of their inspiration from the rapid “speciation” of new livestock breeds that had first begun with Robert Bakewell’s efforts to control sire selection.If livestock breeds could be rapidly “improved” through controlled breeding, clearly the same thing could be done with dogs.Between 1800 and 1865, the number of dog breeds in the UK climbed from 15 to over 50, and it exploded even further with the creation of the Kennel Club in 1873.