About Skylar
Hi! I am Skylar Copeland, the face behind Fireside Fernweh. One thing about me is: I am obsessed with all things White Swiss Shepherd. I am not a hobbyist who works 40 hours a week and only spends evenings and weekends with my dogs. I am very fortunate that I can be with these guys all day, everyday.
I am an avid researcher, and love to spend my time learning more about training, breeding, genetics, pedigrees, and all things dog. Dog adjacent, I also enjoy photography (of dogs) and designing (you guess it--also of dogs). My love for White Shepherds began in 2013, when I brought home my white coated German Shepherd, Athena (more info below). Athena and I had a wonderful agility career, and it was thanks to her that I met Jean Reeves at UKC Gateway Nationals 2017. Less than a full year later, I brought home my Furrari, who would become the foundation of Fireside Fernweh.
I absolutely love training and working with dogs, especially for competition. With my White Swiss Shepherds, I have trialed successfully in agility, obedience, rally obedience, nosework, tracking, dock diving, and weight pull. This vast experience has taught me much about dog temperament and behavior, and made me an absolute firm believer in genetics driving behavior. Despite more than 10 years of competing in dog sports, I remain fascinated and forever learning.
In loving memory of Athena
AUGUST 10TH, 2013 - MARCH 3RD, 2026
Athena, the best first dog a girl could ever hope for. She was patient and forgiving of my mistakes, and despite my lack of experience, she was always so intently focused on me. Often, people struggle to get their dog focused on them (engagement), but that was never a problem with Athena. It's not that she had super high drive, but rather she was just so interested in what I was doing. Speed was never her thing, but she almost never made a mistake.
The first day I met her, I came into the house so excited I couldn't contain myself--scared the poor puppy! She hid behind the couch and I was so sad she was afraid of me. But she quickly came out and we hit the ground running with training. Before she even came home, I knew I wanted to do agility with her! Before agility, she had to learn obedience and so we went through all the classes.
Athena loved food, the ball, and the laser. Often, at trials, I would promise her an ice cream cone if she accomplished a title or won High in Trial. She never failed to deliver...in fact, it happened so often that you begin to wonder if she really understood these conversations before we stepped into the ring. An agility instructor told us we needed to find what really motivated Athena to get her to run faster in agility. Well, for Athena, that was the laser. Above all else, she was crazy for the damn laser. I don't recommend using lasers with dogs because it can make them obsessive, but thankfully Athena really didn't have obsessive tendencies nor the personality to develop them.
Athena hated puppies and arrogant small dogs. She found them annoying as all hell and despite giving lots of warning, they never learned the easy way. Athena was never a truly reactive dog, but if a dog growled or barked at her, she'd make sure to growl first the next time she saw that dog. I think her judgement was fair.
Over her career, she earned over 30 titles, most of which came from agility, but she also held obedience, rally obedience, and trick dog titles. We tried dock diving too, but Athena only liked to swim...she was not interested in jumping off any docks, ha. We competed at CPE Agility Nationals in 2016 and at UKC Premier Nationals in 2019. She was set to compete at UKC Premier Nationals in 2018, but one week before the trial, she was hit by a tractor and broke her leg. She wore an external fixator for three months and then had a long road to recovery rebuilding atrophied muscles. To be able to compete at Premier 2019 was a gift I will never forget. She placed in all of her classes and finished her UKC Grand Agility Champion title that weekend and then retired from agility.
I learned so much from Athena, the perfect first dog for me.