Erica Marshall
APDT Board Chair
CPDT-KA, CDBC
The APDT board is just coming up for air from a two-year rollercoaster of planning and executing the CANIS conference alongside Aggressive Dog. Partnering with Aggressive Dog was easy, putting on an event of this magnitude was not! An event of this size has a lot of moving parts and requires intense attention to detail. The whole CANIS team worked tirelessly to provide the best experience for attendees, and we think we nailed it based on feedback. The board had so much fun meeting everyone that visited our booth, talked to us in the hallways or found us at the lunch tables and chatted.
APDT has a lot of exciting things coming for the next year and beyond. We are working hard as a board to make sure our members find value in their membership and can be proud to call themselves members.
One of the immediate tasks the board voted to undertake was a total website overhaul. Our website has needed to be updated for years, and it is finally being prioritized. That project should be finished by the end of the year. Our Executive Director is spearheading that project along with an excellent web developer. It’s something the board is really excited to unveil to the membership. We are really excited for a smoother user experience for our members as well as for those of us working on the back end.
We have also begun working on organizing all our historical documents to make it easier for us, and for future boards, to access historical information regarding governance and financial decisions. We have found it to be incredibly important to have a much more streamlined and efficient process to access any documents needed. We want to make this process easier for board members to make informed decisions.
One of the biggest undertakings we are working towards is updating our tech systems. Improving our member management system as well as our learning platform is a very exciting prospect for the board, especially those of us who work in those systems every day. Having all our tech systems combined into one will make everything run more smoothly for our members. We look forward to rolling that out in early 2027.
CANIS may be behind us, but the educational opportunities aren’t! We are excited to be expanding our already successful regional events program! We are looking to have 4 regional events in 2027. We are looking at East Coast, Central, and West Coast areas. Regional events are half day to one day presentations on a topic chosen by the presenter. Some events may include working spots, and some may be geared toward trainers and other dog care professionals alike. We are always looking for more ideas on speakers and locations. If you have someone you’d like to hear from or if you are interested in being a presenter, contact us at apdt@apdt.com
Our final big educational undertaking is another overhaul project. Our certification prep course is getting a much needed rename, update, and refresh! The education committee and board members are working hard at revamping the content, signing on new presenters, and making a course that is robust enough to help those who want to move on to sit for their certification tests or those that are new to training and would like a really well-rounded overview of the dog training profession. As always, members get the biggest discount on this and all our educational content. Look for the new and improved prep course to begin roll out early 2027.
So, as the year winds down and our personal calendars get busy, keep an eye on your email so you can be the first to know about all the new things APDT has in store for you, and thank you for your membership!