Aspen Peak Corgis
Breeders of champion line pedigreed AKC registered Cardigan Corgis.
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-
My husband watched proudly from the background. He was always by my side in raising our cats, hand-
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-
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-
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-
We have always been and will remain a small-
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-
It is the intention of Aspen Peak Corgis to promote the Cardigan Welsh Corgi as an ever-
Stoney and Seymour at an IABCA show at Under the Sun Dog Training and Event Center