Hi! I am Skylar Copeland, the face behind Fireside Fernweh. My love for these white dogs began in 2013, after I saw agility on TV and wanted to get involved in the sport. At that time, our only dog was a severely aggressive mastiff mix (who weighed over 100lbs)...not exactly a good agility prospect for an 11 year old girl. After much deliberation over various dog breeds, we landed on the German Shepherd Dog and found a litter in Oklahoma. Half of the litter was sable and half of the litter was white. I had never seen a white German Shepherd before, so naturally that was what I wanted! Athena came home late 2013, and by November 2014, we had entered our first agility trial and earned our first two agility titles. After that, I was hooked on the sport and spent my time learning as much as I could about dog training first, and then expanding into breeding, pedigrees, and genetics.

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I met Jean Reeves, owner of Royal Acres White Swiss Shepherd kennel, at UKC Gateway Nationals in October 2017. Upon seeing someone else with White Shepherds, which had only happened once before in Athena's agility career, I was stoked to talk to her and even more excited when I found out she was a breeder and didn't live all that far from me! Little did I know at the time that Jean had been breeding these dogs since 1986 and that her lines were in the pedigree of many prominent dogs worldwide. At that point, I had hoped to bring home a pup from Jean in 2019, but my Athena was involved in an accident that broke her leg and ended her agility career in June 2018, only a week before she was set to compete at UKC Premier Nationals. I was heartbroken, but everything happens for a reason...and just two months later, Jean posted a driven and active longhair female for sale. In August 2018, I brought home "Furrari," a once in a lifetime dog who became the foundation of Fireside Fernweh in 2020.