The Cairn Terrier Club of America
Meeting of the Board of Governors
The Queen Mary
Long Beach, CA
20-21 June, 2013
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The importance of ethics and
sportsmanship to the health and growth
of the CTCA
Ethics education is now a part of the
CTCA Five-year plan
2013-2018
Prepared by
Anne Dove, Tammy Erickson,
Jim Hulbert, and Kendall Lake
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Part 1. Ethics and Sportsmanship:
Life blood of the CTCA
Strategic, ethical thinking and focusing on
sportsmanship strengthens member attitudes
and behavior that favor cordiality, welcoming,
and fellowship.
Cordiality, welcoming, and fellowship are
qualities that support the core values of a
voluntary association.
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Voluntary associations
do not hand out paychecks
Strong voluntary associations depend on
enjoyment, meaningful activity, and high morale
of their membership for their continuing
existence.
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Voluntary associations:
the strong live, and the weak die
Without meaning, enjoyment, and fellowship,
voluntary associations (clubs, churches):
(1) lose existing members,
(2) fail to attract and retain new members,
(3) watch their budgets disappear,
(4) become a shadow group of ”old hands,”
(5) … and even fade away.
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The role of ethics, ethical problemresolution, and sportsmanship:
These are tools to create and preserve
high morale and, as a result,
member meaning, enjoyment, fellowship ...
and growth.
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Ethics is not relative; it is not squishy;
it is not like nailing Jell-O to a wall.
Ethics is serious, ethics is powerful
• Ethical decision-making is possible because
the activity rests on a firm foundation, a set
of core values that remain stable across time,
cultures, and religions ... worldwide. (1)
1. Kidder RM. How Good People Make Tough Choices.
New York: Harper, 2009.
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Core values are stable
• The Ten Commandments and the Golden
Rule are examples of core values that are
shared, in varying forms, worldwide.
• Core values also include value of personal
responsibility, trust and promise-keeping,
fairness and adherence to rules, justice,
affection, respect for others and for life itself.
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Ethics asks you to do the right thing when
there is no law forcing you to do right
• Lord Moulton (2) describes ethics as personal
“obedience to the unenforceable.”
• It is generally accepted that integrity means
being prepared to enforce ethical standards
upon oneself. This behavior is honoring
“duty” or “manners.”
2. Moulton JF (Lord). Law and Manners. The Atlantic Monthly, Jul, 1924.
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“Right vs. wrong” ethics
• “Doing ethics” can simply be identifying and
resolving “right vs. wrong,” judging behavior
against a moral standard or code of ethics.
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“Right vs. right” ethics
• Ethics can also involve thinking through and
resolving complex dilemmas between two or
more attractive and moral options, “right vs.
right.”
• The CTCA Ethical Education group will
present essays and programs on the
strategies involved in resolving ”right vs.
right” ethical conflicts.
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The CTCA has acted to promote ethics
“Right vs. wrong” and “right vs. right” conflicts,
constantly occurring world-wide, also occur
within the canine hobby. Ethics will be
discussed in a series of brief programs at CTCA
annual and roving specialties and in regular
columns in the Club newsletter.
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The CTCA and Ethics
“Right vs. right” dilemmas can be
conflicts between:
•
•
•
•
Justice vs. mercy
Short-term vs. long term problems
Individual vs. community
Truth vs loyalty (1)
1. Kidder RM. How Good People Make Tough Choices.
New York: Harper, 2009.
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The CTCA and Ethics
“Justice vs. mercy” might involve issues of
fairness and even-handed application of rules
vs. compassion and deciding matters
case-by-case.
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The CTCA and Ethics
“Short vs long term” (now vs then) issues
involve conflicts about
immediate needs vs. future goals.
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The CTCA and Ethics
“Individual vs community” (self vs. group) issues
involve conflicts about the needs and agenda of
the self vs. those of the community.
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The CTCA and Ethics
“Truth vs loyalty” (honesty vs. commitment)
issues involve conflicts about truth-telling vs.
promise-keeping and responsibility.
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The CTCA and Ethics
The point: When “doing ethics,” carefully
considering values and responses is crucial.
In “right vs right” conflicts, thinking may be
complex and optimal resolutions not
immediately evident.
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The good news: You will improve with practice.
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The CTCA and Ethics
Ethical education can help people use
• Ends-based thinking (what works now),
• Rule-based thinking (go by the book),
• Care-based thinking (personal harmony),
to resolve issues. (1)
1. Kidder RM. How Good People Make Tough Choices.
New York: Harper, 2009.
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What CTCA ethics education can offer
Presentations of ethical dilemmas taken from
the lives of breeders, handlers, and pet owners
will move the discussion from the abstract
quickly to the concrete.
Ethics promotes both respectful and practical
decision-making. Essays and programs will
encourage member willingness to reflect on the
ethics and consequences of decisions before
they are made.
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Part 2. The ethics of the game: sportsmanship
From general ethics, we move to the ethics and
values of games and competitive events:
sportsmanship.
Sportsmanship is a core value in sport involving
“respect for game,” respect for the rules and spirit of
the game and for one’s fellow competitors. (3)
3. Butcher R, Schneider A. Fair Play as Respect for the Game. In
Ethics in Sport, Morgan W. (ed). Champaign (IL): Human Kinetics,
2007.
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Sportsmanship
Without sportsmanship, there is no true game …
only cynical manipulation and brutish behavior.
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Sportsmanship
Games are contrived activities, almost always
involving some form of limits on the players that
would not occur in normal life, to make the
activity an interesting contest of skill under
difficult conditions.
Examples: baseball, football, soccer, golf,
tennis, and canine conformation and
performance events!
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Sportsmanship
Ethical education can present vignettes of stepby-step resolution of more complex “right vs
right” problems that confront
breeders and handlers.
Presentations can involve discussions of
sportsmanship in dog-related activities,
encouraging respect for the game and
for one another.
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Doing ethics: Not easy, but
very important
Our first handout presents a hypothetical “right
vs. right” dilemma occurring at a conformation
show.
To model ethical thinking and sportsmanship,
we trace the sequence of thinking a competitor
might do in proceeding to a resolution.
[Activity]
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Doing ethics: Not easy, but
very important
The handout is an example of the kind of nonconfrontive programming we can propose in a
CTCA ethical education seminar.
To promote ethical thinking and behavior,
The CTCA Board of Governors has approved
the creation of an Ethics Education
Committee!
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Doing ethics: Not easy, but
very important
Club leaders support regular discussion of
ethical thinking and sportsmanship concerning
issues in the CTCA and in the general sport of
dogs.
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Thank you!
Anne Dove,
Tammy Erickson,
Jim Hulbert, and
Kendall Lake
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