A Reflection on Kindness, Accountability and Sportsmanship
There are times in our lives with dogs when everything is easy.
The dogs are healthy. They are happy. They behave as we expect them to. We walk into the show ring with confidence, we shake hands with our friends, we congratulate the winners and we go home proud of our dogs.
And then there are the times when something happens that none of us expected.
A dog behaves badly. A safety concern arises. Someone is frightened or angry. Opinions become strong, emotions run high, and suddenly what began as a difficult situation involving dogs becomes a conflict involving people.
It is during those moments that I believe we need to remind ourselves what good sportsmanship, kindness and respect really mean.
I am writing this because I recently found myself in exactly such a situation.
I am the breeder and co-owner of an Irish Wolfhound bitch who, at two years of age, unexpectedly displayed aggressive behaviour toward other dogs in the show environment. During one show, she lunged at three other dogs.
There is no way to minimize that.
When the safety of another dog is potentially at risk, the concern is legitimate. The people who witnessed what happened had every right to be frightened and upset. As owners and exhibitors, we all have a responsibility to protect our dogs.
The co-owner and I took the matter seriously.
We talked extensively about what had happened and what we should do. The behaviour was new and completely out of character for the dog we knew. We believed it might be an isolated change in behaviour, and we made the decision to allow her to continue showing under carefully managed circumstances, keeping her away from other dogs as much as possible.
With hindsight, that was the wrong decision.
I am comfortable saying that.
It is easy to make the right decision when you know the outcome.
It is considerably harder when you are standing in the middle of a situation, trying to understand something you have never seen before, making decisions based on the information you have at that moment.
For a period of time, the dog behaved beautifully. She went through six shows without incident. We began to believe that perhaps the original behaviour had been an isolated event and that we were successfully managing the situation.
Then came Saskatchewan.
She behaved appropriately on the first day. On the second day, following competition, she unexpectedly lunged at another hound while receiving her Group 2 ribbon.
That was the moment when we knew we could no longer rely on our previous judgment.
A formal complaint was made to the Canadian Kennel Club. The co-owner and I made the decision to remove her from future competition and seek professional assistance.
The safety of other dogs had to come first.
Sometimes responsible ownership means making a decision that is painful.
Sometimes it means admitting that the decision you made previously was wrong.
And sometimes it means accepting that the dog you love may no longer have a place in the activity you both enjoyed.
That is not easy.
But it is responsible.
There Are Two Problems Here
What happened with the dog is one problem.
How we respond to one another when something like this happens is another.
I believe we need to be able to hold both truths at the same time.
We can say:
“This behaviour is unacceptable and must be addressed.”
And we can also say:
“The people involved deserve to be treated fairly while they address it.”
Those statements are not contradictory.
In fact, I believe they are the foundation of a healthy dog community.
If someone witnesses a serious incident, they should report it. They should speak to the Show Superintendent, the judge or the appropriate governing body. They should document what they personally witnessed and allow the appropriate process to take place.
That is how responsible communities function.
What concerns me is what happens when legitimate concern moves beyond reporting and into public condemnation.
The Court of Facebook
We now live in a world where it is possible to take a complicated and emotionally charged situation and put it in front of hundreds of people before all the facts are known.
Someone hears about an incident.
Someone else repeats what they heard.
Another person adds their interpretation.
Soon, assumptions become facts.
People who were not there feel entitled to determine what happened, what should have been done, what the owners were thinking, what the breeder knew, and what should happen to the dog in the future.
And suddenly, someone is being tried in what I think of as the Court of Facebook.
There is no investigation.
There is no opportunity for both sides to be heard.
There is no examination of evidence.
There is simply public opinion.
And public opinion can be remarkably unforgiving.
I understand why people become emotional. I understand why people become protective of their dogs. I understand why someone who witnesses a frightening incident may feel anger.
What I don’t believe we should accept is the idea that anger gives us permission to abandon kindness.
Concern deserves a voice. Condemnation requires evidence.
Hearsay Is Not the Whole Story
One of the most troubling aspects of these situations is how quickly hearsay can become accepted as truth.
There is an enormous difference between:
“I was there and I witnessed this.”
and:
“I heard that this happened.”
Both statements may be sincere.
They are not the same.
When serious accusations are being made about a breeder, an owner, a kennel or a dog’s future, we should be especially careful about making assumptions based upon information we have not personally verified.
Words matter.
Names matter.
Reputations matter.
And in a small breed community, words written online can travel much farther and live much longer than the person writing them may ever realize.
A careless comment can damage relationships that have taken decades to build.
Temperament Matters
I want to be very clear about something else.
Temperament matters.
It matters enormously in the Irish Wolfhound.
It matters to breeders.
It matters to owners.
It matters to judges.
And it matters to the future of our breed.
When a dog demonstrates serious and unexpected aggression, it is entirely appropriate to question what should happen next. It is appropriate to consider whether the dog should continue competing. It is appropriate to investigate possible contributing factors. And it is absolutely appropriate to consider whether a dog should ever be bred.
Those are serious questions.
They deserve serious answers.
But serious questions should not be decided in the heat of a Facebook discussion.
They deserve thoughtful consideration, complete information and, where appropriate, professional evaluation.
In our case, we have now made the decision to remove this bitch from future competition and seek professional help.
We are not sweeping the issue under the rug.
We are not pretending it did not happen.
And we are not waiting for social media to tell us what responsible ownership looks like.
We are dealing with it.
What Would I Do Differently?
This is perhaps the most important question I can ask myself.
Knowing what I know now, would I make the same decision to allow the dog to continue showing after the initial incidents?
No.
I would not.
That is a difficult thing to admit, but I believe it is important.
We made a judgment based on the information available to us at the time. We believed the behaviour was new, unusual and potentially manageable. The subsequent six incident-free shows reinforced that belief.
But the later incident changed the picture.
Good breeders and responsible owners must be willing to change their minds when circumstances change.
We cannot allow pride, reputation, titles or ribbons to become more important than the safety and welfare of other dogs.
The lesson is not that we should never make mistakes.
The lesson is that when we recognize a mistake, we must have the courage to correct it.
What About the Rest of Us?
Perhaps the larger lesson is not only for breeders and owners.
It is for all of us.
If you witness something troubling, report it.
If you are frightened for your dog’s safety, remove your dog from the situation.
If you believe something serious has happened, use the proper channels.
If you are not certain about the facts, say so.
If you hear something from someone else, remember that it is hearsay.
And before posting something publicly about another person, ask yourself:
Would I say this to their face?
Do I know this to be true?
Am I helping solve the problem—or am I simply adding to the anger?
And perhaps the most important question:
If the circumstances were reversed and I were the person being discussed, how would I hope my community would treat me?
Because eventually, every one of us may find ourselves on the uncomfortable side of an unexpected situation.
We Are a Community
Those of us who have been involved in dogs for many years know that no breeder, owner or exhibitor gets everything right.
Dogs are living creatures.
They surprise us.
They develop behaviours we have never seen before. Things change with maturity. Circumstances change. Health changes. Environment changes.
Sometimes we make decisions that turn out to be wrong.
That doesn’t mean we should not be held accountable.
It means accountability should be accompanied by fairness and humanity.
We should be able to say:
“You need to deal with this.”
Without saying:
“You are a terrible person.”
We should be able to say:
“This dog should not be in the ring.”
Without saying:
“Let’s destroy the reputation of everyone connected to that dog.”
We should be able to disagree strongly without becoming cruel.
And we should be able to protect our dogs without losing our respect for the people standing beside us.
The True Test of Sportsmanship
Good sportsmanship is easy when we win.
It is easy when our dogs behave beautifully, when everyone is congratulating one another and when we are walking away from the ring with a ribbon in our hand.
The true test comes when we are angry.
When we are frightened.
When we are disappointed.
When we believe someone else has made a terrible mistake.
That is when our character is revealed.
Kindness does not mean ignoring a serious problem.
Respect does not mean remaining silent.
Accountability does not mean public humiliation.
And good sportsmanship does not mean pretending that everything is okay.
It means having the courage to speak when something is wrong—but doing so responsibly.
It means using the proper channels.
It means speaking about what we know rather than what we assume.
It means giving people the opportunity to respond.
It means recognizing that we may not know the entire story.
And it means remembering that the person we are criticizing today may be the person standing beside us tomorrow.
A Better Way Forward
Perhaps this difficult experience has reminded me of something I have always believed about the Irish Wolfhound community.
We are better than this.
We can disagree without destroying relationships.
We can have difficult conversations without making them personal.
We can protect our dogs while still protecting the dignity of the people involved.
We can insist upon accountability while offering compassion.
And we can use our established processes rather than creating our own courts of public opinion.
Our dogs deserve our protection.
Our breed deserves responsible breeders and owners.
Our sport deserves integrity.
And our fellow exhibitors deserve our humanity.
I have learned something from this experience.
I have learned that sometimes the hardest responsibility is not admitting that someone else was wrong.
It is admitting that we were wrong.
I have learned that doing the right thing may mean stepping away from something we love.
And I have been reminded that when difficult situations arise, we need one another—not a mob, not a Facebook courtroom, but a community willing to speak honestly, listen carefully, act responsibly and extend kindness even when emotions are running high.
Because perhaps the greatest measure of sportsmanship is not how we behave when everything is going our way.
Perhaps it is how we behave when it isn’t.
That is when kindness matters.
That is when respect matters.
That is when accountability matters.
And that is when good sportsmanship matters most.
Heathview IW's
Heathview Irish Wolfhounds 