Civics Class And Civilized – Your Posts May Be Held Against You

Click here to read the complete article
76 – October, 2025

By Wayne Cavanaugh

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll remember a time when you had no idea what your long-time friends in the sport did for a living, and you sure didn’t know or care what their religious or political preferences were. The reasons were simple. We were too busy talking about dogs. We were dog people, and that’s what mattered most in our lives. Unfortunately, that central part of our sport, that camaraderie, has begun to shatter as national politics has taken over the conversation.

Today, we live in a world where hate and division sells. Even at dog shows–and certainly on social media–we spend more time parroting the opinions of talking heads than we do talking about dogs. Aren’t we better than that? How has politics become the sword we chose to divide the sport?

Inclusion has been a mainstay of the sport as long as I’ve been alive. It’s one of the things that makes our sport so special. In 1935, Mrs. Sherman Hoyt was the first woman to pilot a dog, a Standard Poodle, to Best In Show at Westminster. It may have raised a few eyebrows back then, but it is safe to say that allowing dogs to be shown by women did not divide the sport.*

AKC dog shows have been a place of inclusion long before it was cool. LGBTQ handlers, breeders, exhibitors, AKC Board members, and AKC Delegates are an integral part of the fabric. They did not divide the sport.

Click here to read the complete article
76 – October, 2025

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=340615

Posted by AnthonyA on Oct 9 2025. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.