The Origins of IFCS

Ken Tatsch recalls USDAA's role in creating international competition.

The International Federation of Cynological Sports got its start on the initiative of Yuri Ostashenko, then an employee of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation. He had a personal interest in dogs, including working with them in the military. He had already registered IFCS as a sports federation to pursue his vision when he first reached out to USDAA founder Ken Tatsch to share his concept and invited him to Moscow for organizational talks at the end of 1999.

A formal organizational meeting in 2000 included representatives from the Ministry of Sport, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Siberia and Ukraine, with others looking on from afar. Representatives described their dog agility sport programs and their vision for a new platform for international competition modeled after the Olympics, removing breed and personal biases from the mix of those who could participate. There was a strong passion fueled by a desire for freedom in sports and to see dog agility rise to a respected status as a global sport. 

The conference spanned two days, during which the group also compared each nation’s regulations, many of which had been modeled upon USDAA regulations, with some variation. A format for a world championship event was discussed, as well as identifying other canine sports (in addition to dog agility) that should be under the IFCS purview. The meeting concluded with each official signing a declaration of support of the concept for IFCS. 

“Yuri, with the agreement of others, asked that I work with him as IFCS vice president to organize the first world championship event for dog agility and to reach out to other nations,” Ken said. A lot of travel and work led to production of the first IFCS World Agility Championship in Moscow in April 2002. 

During this time, IFCS attracted the interest of sports organizations in Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa and Spain, with a number of western European countries following their lead. All of these countries fielded teams two years later for what was to become a biennial world championship event through 2014, and an annual event thereafter. In 2018, IFCS moved its headquarters from Moscow to Brussels and registered as an international nonprofit sports federation.