Conner

Conner was my first Aussie, and in fact my first dog. He has done well in
various arenas including flyball, conformation, and obedience. Despite his
"conformation" bloodlines, he has even showen natural ablity in herding.

Conner was competing in flyball at just over a year of age. After competing for
about two years, Conner took a break from flyball to make some appearances
in the breed ring. In just seven months, he accumulated 9 points including two
majors and multiple BOB. Tragically, in March 2006, Conner became very ill
with meningitis. He spent several days in Iowa State University's ICU unable to
even walk without losing his balance and falling over. The neurologist, Dr.
Karen Kline cared for him and he had numerous tests done. To this day, we
are still not sure what may have happened, although our suspicions are some
type of viral disease. With an initially very poor prognosis, we were all
devistated. However, much to everyone's suprise he made an almost
complete recovery. Unfortunately, the permanent nerve damage left Conner
with a very slight limp in the rear. We took him into the breed ring a few times
to see if he could compete, but after a year had acheived only one additional
point. Conner was retired from showing in February 2008.

Conner hasn't let his illness slow him down in other venues. He has gone on to
achieve his CD- on the one year aniversary of his illness- as well as his RN
and RA. We are currenltly working on his excellent rally title and expect he will
quialify quickly. We are also training for his CDX, our only sticking point is the
darn dumbell retrieve. He will retrieve a ball, toy, or stick, but definitely NOT a
dumbell....He has even made some appearances back in the flyball arena
when the team needed some help.

Everyone who meets Conner instantly loves him. In fact, after he became ill, I
had people that I didn't even know coming up to me at shows and asking
about him because they had met and fallen in love with him. He is a very gentle
Aussie. He is always willing to please, making training a wonderful
experience. He is very attentive to people and their personalities and moods.
He has wonderful conformation and displayed effortless movement proir to his
nerve damage.

Conner was lovingly shown in conformation by Steve Davidson of Arista
Golden Retrievers.