Association of Pet Dog Trainers
The Association of Pet Dog Trainers is a professional, worldwide organization of individual dog trainers who are committed to becoming better trainers through education. The mission of the APDT is to enhance the human-dog relationship by educating trainers, other animal professionals and the public and advocating dog-friendly training.
Their web site required two distinct areas:
- Public area of pet owners to obtain valuable resources.
- Members-Only area for the organization's membership to allow for access to special content, account management, and other resources. View example of Member's Area design >
When we were first contacted by APDT, their current web site was very difficult to use. We spent over seven months reconstructing all the pages and incorporating their existing content into a new design.
Before
After
View a detailed screen shot of the Member's Area >>
A two and three-column fixed, centered design was used and is controlled completely by strict CSS technology. All pages are automatically printer-friendly with no need to obtain a 'Printer-Friendly Version'. The entire web site was developed using the Microsoft .NET framework and utilizes the latest in page speed optimization.
Among the many other improvements:
- Expanded sections, information, and resources.
- Improved dog trainer search to find a dog trainer closest to the site visitor.
- Online account management
- Easier access to both public and Members Area sections.
- Faster pages, streamlined navigation, and hundreds of improvements to the code.
- Site was written in standards-compliant XHTML 1.1 markup language.
- All presentation elements are controlled by CSS.
- Code is written to help conform to Section 508 guidelines.
- SQL Server 2005 used to manage all site data.
What We Are Most Proud Of
The Pet Memorials section. We wanted a fitting place for our four-legged companions to be honored, and so decided to have a candle burn in the upper right corner of the pages. We filmed a real candle burning and created an 8-second loop of the video. Then, we converted this into Flash Video and edited it so that it appears to have a continuous, eternal flame. Lastly, the final video was incorporated into the web page.
The Association of Pet Dog Trainers Web Site was our most challenging, yet most enjoyable web site to produce to date. And we learned more about dogs and training then we ever thought possible! Yes, you could say we gathered a huge respect for the dog training profession.