Aspen Peak Corgis

Breeders of champion line pedigreed AKC registered Cardigan Corgis.

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About Aspen Peak Corgis

Aspen Peak was formed in 2020, when I bought my husband his first German Shepherd puppy for showing and breeding, while I did research on Cardigan Welsh Corgis. He was going to breed German Shepherds while I was going to breed Cardigan Welsh Corgis.

I (Catherine Rudy) started breeding Minuet cats in 2015, with my husband being my right-hand man but not really delving too much into the intricacies of cat associations and genetics like I had. What he learned was through absorption from me. My cattery is called Tiny Lions Minuets (www.tinylionsminuets.com) and I went all in with the breed, even becoming the Minuet Breed Group Chairperson with TICA (The International Cat Association). I show my cats and have taken them to the highest titles they can achieve.

My husband watched proudly from the background. He was always by my side in raising our cats, hand-feeding kittens small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. However, he always felt he was apart from the cat world because he was a dog person. He wanted to do what I was doing with my cats with a dog breed he has always loved, the German Shepherd Dog. He kept his peace until after years of breeding cars, he finally posed a question: Would I be willing to help him breed German Shepherd Dogs.  

I was startled by his question, not so much that he wanted to move into the dog world, but that he would want to take on an endeavor for himself. In truth, several years ago, we raised Jack Russell Terriers, but our growing human family and work constraints put a kibosh on that after a while. It wasn’t until we both retired and our family grew up and moved out that I started raising cats. Now, Scott, my husband, wanted something for himself. He had watched me go through the horrible growing pains of raising kittens of a minority breed, was my rock when I was ready to quit, and knew all the ups and downs of breeding, and he said he was ready to take on a project of his own.  Our own. I agreed only if I could pick my own breed to get behind, while he did the German Shepherds.

So we agreed to explore breeding dogs again, even while I continued with my cats, only after we did a lot of research in the dog breeding world. In truth, we already had a lot of “breeding” knowledge and respect for doing it right, but we wanted to learn the intricacies of the dog world. Things had changed in the many years since we had raised Jack Russell Terriers. Since I am the one who does all the intellectual research, I started reading books on German Shepherds, delving into German Shepherd sites, and making contact with the breeder who would eventually agree to mentor me with our first dog. It took a lot of work and my history with my cattery showed that I was worth the risk with a breeding dog.

To make a long story short, my husband got his first German Shepherd from Florida, while I shifted gears into learning about Cardigan Welsh Corgis, which would be my breed to get behind.  But not without much research.

My husband got WDR Lakota Aspen Peak Vom Fustenhund from Florida in September 2020, our first German Shepherd Dog as a 9 week old puppy. She came from exceedingly impressive lines, with her sire being Grand Champion TRG’s Johnny Walker Red V Luzak, and her dam being Grand Champion Wonderland’s Mia Hamm FDC CGC ATT.  We were thrilled and couldn’t wait to have Lakota grow up with us, while I started researching different Corgi breeders.  I wanted my dogs to match my husband’s shepherd in health, temperament and quality. Breeding correctly takes a lot of time and patience, and we were definitely willing to do this.  If you aren’t going to do it right, then don’t do it. That’s what I told anyone who came to me with designs on breeding Minuet cats. It would be no less important in breeding dogs.

Over the next few years, my husband intermittently showed Lakota and we got another German Shepherd, Santee. I still hunted for my perfect Cardigan Corgi.  I already had an agreement in place that my daughter and her husband would co-own any male we got and raise it in their home. The reason for this was keeping a whole male away from any females, German Shepherd or Corgi, to avoid any accidental breeding. They were more than excited to add a Corgi to their family and couldn’t wait for their boy to go home to them. In the meantime, Lakota grew to the age of having her first litter (2 years old) and I still searched.  Time progressed and I did find a male Corgi, a blue merle and white, with tan points puppy that we got in state. We named him Monarch’s Titonwan Aspen Peak, and my kids chose to call him Seymour Butts.  A short time later, I found our female in Alabama, a black and white with brindle points, and I drove out to get her. We named her Legacy’s Stoney of Aspen Peak. Now would be more waiting for them to grow up. They could not get their medical testing done until they were 2 years old. In the meantime, we showed a few times for fun with a friend who shows Great Danes and they both got some points here and there, but showing in AKC was not as fun as showing cats. Showing dogs was a brutal competition, while showing cats was a whole social weekend. I admit that I only showed the two Corgis to travel with our friend showing the Great Danes. We were not so goal oriented as she was in going for championship titles. (At this time, our friend is going for her Bronze title on her Great Dane).

While the Corgis did their growing up, my husband did three fabulous breedings with Lakota. Unfortunately, Santee turned out to have EPI (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency), so she was immediately spayed and kept as a pet. After Lakota’s third litter, my husband decided it was time for Lakota to be spayed and kept as a family pet. So aside from the few cats we had, we now had two purebred German Shepherds, a Cardigan Welsh Corgi who thinks she’s a German Shepherd, and two rescues senior dogs (13 and 14 years old respectively).  We waited out the time until the two Corgis turned two years old and then started their health certifications, realizing the whole time that failing any one of these health exams would end our plans of breeding Stoney and Seymour.  The health exams required for Cardigan Welsh Corgis are posted on the Othopedic Foundation for Animals’s (OFA) website.  https://ofa.org/chic-programs/browse-by-breed/?breed=WCC

In May of 2025, our two Corgis came of age for their health exams and we eagerly had them done, not without a bit of anxiety, though. Any one of these health exams could have stopped us dead cold.  But Seymour and Stoney passed with flying colors and each exam was submitted to the OFA for certification and public viewing. We are proud to show off our dogs’ health results and you can find them on our Parent’s page.  We watermarked them so no one else could “steal” their results.

So some people might ask why I chose to breed Cardigan Welsh Corgis when we already had German Shepherds. Did you miss the point that I was already successfully breeding Minuets? While not well known, Minuets are dwarf cats. I had become so involved in the science behind the dwarf gene, that I was embroiled in an ongoing study with Dr. Leslie Lyons of the University of Missouri and vets with the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA), where we were doing a multiple series of radiographs on the joints and bone structure of dwarf cats to identify if there are any health issues with the feline dwarf gene. Dr. Lyons is the geneticist who is the project coordinator and will publish the study; the OFA will be reading the rads, and I am the one who tracks down the cats and gets them x-rayed (and pays for all the x-rays). This is because I am committed to the health of these cats. This commitment carries over to my love for this type of body structure and it was inevitable that I would find myself attracted to dwarf dogs. I did a lot of research on dwarf dog breeds and found that Corgis are an ancient breed that can be dated back to the tenth century. This means they are not a man-made breed, but a natural breed that has evolved over centuries. What this tells me is that they have had over a thousand years to adapt with health and their structure. I chose the Cardigan over the Pembroke because I do not believe in docking tails. I see no need to do this.

We have always been and will remain a small-time kennel and cattery, breeding puppies only once a year. We believe in quality over quantity.

While Seymour lives with my daughter’s family in Colorado Springs, CO, an hour away from us, Seymour often comes to visit with the family; as does Stoney at their home. We are each other’s pet sitters as well.

Our Kennel in Brief:

Aspen Peak Corgis is run by Catherine and Bryan Rudy of Divide, Colorado, in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. It is dedicated solely to producing pure-bred, champion line Cardigan Welsh Corgis that can pass along the desirable traits found in this loyal, majestic breed.

It is the intention of Aspen Peak Corgis to promote the Cardigan Welsh Corgi as an ever-improving, healthy breed by breeding only high-quality dogs that have passed their health certifications and proven clear of genetic diseases tested through DNA by Wisdom Health, Optimal Selection.


Stoney and Seymour at an IABCA show at Under the Sun Dog Training and Event Center