Integrity, Ethics, and Honesty

By Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton, Esq. Mediator / Hamilton Law and Mediation

In the dog show world, integrity, ethics and honor (IEH) are important ingredients to sustaining relationships among participants inside and outside the ring.

A recent article appearing in a recent dog show periodical talked about the “concept of integrity, [as] applied to judges and exhibitors equally.” The article labeled the choices we make as competitors, breeders, owners and handlers as the “line[s] we draw in the sand.” This month’s article takes that topic and delves deeper into integrity, ethics and honor (IEH) in the dog show world and beyond.

How do we decide what is ‘okay’ and what is going too far? If a dog is beautiful but has a bad bite or is monorchid, do we fix and show it, or place it in a pet home? In the sport of purebred dogs, it is important to know where people draw their line in the sand. When it comes to showing, performing and breeding our dogs, the shifting of that line can become problematic. Where does the line fall if you truly believe you have a great but imperfect dog? Does it shift with the tide of winning or losing? Can fixing or covering up a fault be seen as crossing the line?

In looking more deeply into this concept of IEH, one only needs to go to Google. The following three articles explore differing views on IEH and may be of interest to you on this important topic. They go from strong to medium to light on a scale of what it means to live in IEH. In the first article, Success Will Come and Go, But Integrity will Last Forever, written by Amy Rees Anderson for Forbes, the author takes a no-quarter approach to integrity. You either have it or you don’t. Integrity is forever. Ms. Rees-Anderson feels, “Doing the right thing” is the choice to make no matter what. She states, “Building a reputation for having integrity takes years, yet losing it only takes a few seconds.” She laments that, “We live in a world where the end justifies the means.” Rees-Anderson says, “People actually tell themselves they had a perfectly valid reason for why they did what they did.” Rees-Anderson asks us to remember that, “Every person who trusts you will spread the word of that trust,” to at least a few of their associates. Word of your character will spread like wildfire.

The more neutral article, Integrity Essay by Grace Farley for the Nebraska Better Business Bureau, states that, “Integrity is the antonym to dishonesty and the synonym to honor.”

“By consistently doing the right thing with conviction, candor, compassion and courage we will earn and keep the respect of our clients and co-workers. We must always be respectful of, and accountable to our clients, co-workers and ourselves,” Farley writes.

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Posted by Alex on May 13 2016. 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.