About Us and Great Oak Shepherds...

After many years of admiring the German Shepherd breed we acquired our first female, Great Oak’s Jaz It Up (“Jaz”), from Margaret Arabia of Blackthorn German Shepherds in West Virginia.  Jaz has proven to be easy to train, confident, and always draws compliments for her wonderful temperament – as you can see in the photo with “her” kitten.  Though she is described by anyone she meets as “sweet”, this does not mean she is unwilling to defend her home and family when necessary.  Jaz began agility training as a young dog but we decided to focus on obedience, my first love – and she has been quite successful, including high national rankings and wins at German Shepherd Nationals.  Please visit our News page for show information.

Blackthorn’s Liebe of Great Oak (“Eva”) joined us in 2007 and is beginning a successful show career as well, notably a class win and tie score for High in Trial (out of approximately 100 dogs) at German Shepherd Nationals in the fall of 2009.

Our son was born in March 2009 and both dogs are very patient with him.  They have been completely trustworthy with the baby from the day he arrived home and Jaz appointed herself his personal guardian, sleeping under his cradle and following whoever was holding him.