It gives me great pleasure to announce the opening of a new group of
Internet forums:

http://21st-century-dogs.com/21st-century-dog-breeds/phpBB3/

The overall forum title is "21st Century Dog Breeds." The title
refers to the theme of my 1996 brief, "Purebred Dogs into the Twenty-
First Century -- Achieving Genetic Health for Our Dogs." My beloved
super-leader and sidekick Tonya of Seppala was a puppy when that brief
was written. She is now an old, retired lead dog. As my wife remarked
when I set up these forums, "It's been a long time coming." An entire
dog's lifetime, in fact. Perhaps I should have done this much sooner,
but I doubt the interest and awareness would have been there. Today, I
would hope, there is sufficient awareness and interest to sustain such
forums.

The purpose of the forums will be to discuss how we can move our dog
breeds into the New Milennium and get them out of the nineteenth-
century moulds that are killing our dogs with what some describe as
"genetic genocide." So we need to discuss:

* REGISTRIES, what they do to dog breeds, and whether they can be run
in a way that will be less damaging.
* CLOSED STUD BOOKS and why they are seldom genetically viable.
* The idea of a BREED -- whether it can be defined scientifically and
rationally, or whether the breed-concept is merely something that
exists primarily in the minds of the dog fancy.
* The PUREBRED concept, and whether it really needs to be interpreted
in such a way that absolute BREED PURITY is a must and no fresh
genetic input can be allowed in purebreds.
* POPULATION GENETICS and how it relates to dog breeds and registries.
* The impact of INBREEDING on our dogs and how this gets
predetermined by breed and registry structures.
* BREED STANDARDS and the way in which they influence dog breeding.
* ARTIFICIAL SELECTION and the ways in which it can be inimical to
canine welfare.
* Also we shall discuss individual DOG BREEDS themselves,
particularly those that are "at risk" for the ills brought about by
closed stud books, inbreeding, and genetic drift -- the small-
population "rare breeds." But not excluding mainstream breeds, either,
such as Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds, both greatly affected
by rather similar problems.

I hope these will not be idle breed-chat forums. The emphasis should
be on pinpointing the problem areas and trying to develop innovative
solutions, ways in which breeds can be defined, dogs can be
registered, breeding can be conducted, that will be to the benefit of
the dogs themselves. As things stand, purebred dogs get nothing but
illness (as individuals) out of dog shows, all-breed registries, breed
standards, and all the Victorian structures of the canine fancy that
have come down to us from the nineteenth century. Well -- it's the
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY now, and it is high time we found better
structures for that fancy, ones that will help our dogs, not hurt them.

I hope these forums will become an active agent for change in the dog
world. I hope to see many responsible and concerned dog breeders and
owners there.

J. Jeffrey Bragg
21st Century Dog Breeds Forums