Celtic CorgisBig Island, Hawai'iCeltic CorgisBig Island, Hawai'iWe breed Pembroke Welsh Corgis to the AKC standard first: health, disposition, and true breed type, with every parent DNA tested. Our primary program is the classic red and white smooth coat, AKC show quality. Alongside it we breed European style full fluffs, a separate program with natural tails and dewclaws. Your puppy never flies cargo. I fly with them in the cabin and place them in your hands myself.
Every dog in our program is DNA tested, and we breed for disposition and true Pembroke type before anything else. From that foundation we run two distinct programs.
Our primary program
The classic Pembroke: red and white with white markings, bred to the AKC standard, show quality, tails docked. This is what we lead with and what we are proudest of.
A separate program
A different category, not a variation. Long coat, natural tail, dewclaws left on. The fluffy coat is a disqualifying fault under the AKC standard, which is exactly why most American breeders will not produce one. We do, deliberately, because we love them and because mainland families seek them out. Hawai'i does not ask for fluffs. The mainland does.
Smooth coats are docked by default. Fluffs keep their tails, because that is how we prefer them. Either can go the other way if you ask, on a puppy-by-puppy basis. Most breeders dock on a fixed schedule and give you no say.
One thing worth knowing: that decision is made in the first days of life, well before a puppy is old enough to be listed anywhere. If you want a say in it, you need to be on our waitlist before the litter arrives.
Most breeders hand a puppy to a shipping company. Some hire a stranger, a "flight nanny," to collect the puppy at the airport and fly with it.
I do it myself. I've known your puppy since the day it was born. I know how it sleeps, what settles it, and what it does when it's nervous. I book the seat, I carry the crate under it, and I hand your puppy directly to you.
For families on the mainland and neighboring islands, this is the part that turns a leap of faith into something you can picture.
Most breeders send every puppy home at eight weeks. We keep our best ones longer, and by the time they leave, the hardest part of puppy raising is already behind you.
You skip the weeks of accidents and 3am wake-ups. Our started puppies come home knowing where to go.
Their full vaccine series is complete, so the beach, the park, and the neighborhood are open from day one.
At eight weeks, personality is a guess. At four months, we can tell you honestly which puppy is the calm one and which will hike with you.
We breed a small number of carefully planned litters each year, and our puppies are spoken for quickly. Joining the waitlist costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It simply means you hear from us before anyone else, and it is the only way to have a say in your puppy's tail.
A started puppy is one we've raised past the usual eight weeks: through potty training, through the full vaccine series, and far enough into life that we truly know who they are.
This is the part most breeders can't offer, and it's why a started puppy is worth what it costs. Our puppies begin formal training with Jen Keller, a master dog trainer since 2012, an Animal Behaviour College graduate, and trained in Cesar Millan's Cesar's Way methods. We start training with Jen in Texas and continue working with her remotely from Hawai'i.
It means your puppy doesn't arrive as a blank slate. Someone who does this professionally has already put hands on them, and the foundation is laid before they ever board a plane.
You can also watch it happen. We go live on Facebook every Sunday with the puppies' progress and training, so you can see your puppy grow up before you ever meet them.
Raising a puppy for an extra two months costs real money and real hours. Most breeding programs are built on volume, which means every puppy has to leave at eight weeks to make room for the next litter.
We keep our program small on purpose. That's what lets us hold back our best puppies, smooth coat or fluff, and give them the extra time. It's why started puppies are limited to a few each year.
We plan a small number of litters each year. Puppies are placed from our waitlist first.
Our current litter is predominantly full fluff and available for reservation now. Puppies go home at eight weeks, and a limited number will be held back for our Started Puppy Program.
Reserving from the waitlist first.
Full fluff · [sex] · [color]
[Available / Reserved]
Full fluff · [sex] · [color]
[Available / Reserved]
Full fluff · [sex] · [color]
[Available / Reserved]
Every puppy leaves with age-appropriate vaccinations, a one-year health guarantee, and a starter kit: a toy, a blanket that smells like mom, potty pads, a collar and a leash.
Home at 8 weeks
Home at 8 weeks
Home at ~4 months
Hand delivery is quoted separately based on your destination. See Delivery.
Your puppy will not be checked as cargo. It will not be handed to a stranger. I book a seat, and your puppy travels in the cabin with the person who raised it.
I fly to Oahu, Maui, and Kaua'i personally and meet you at the airport. Most of our families are on Oahu, and this is a short, easy flight for a puppy.
I fly with your puppy in cabin to meet you. Delivery is quoted based on your destination and covers airfare and travel. Started puppies travel especially well. They're fully vaccinated and past the fragile stage.
Puppies in cargo holds face temperature swings, loud noise, and long stretches with nobody watching. It's the single most common fear families raise about buying from a distance.
Flight nanny services charge hundreds to thousands of dollars for someone who meets your puppy for the first time at the airport. I've known yours since it was born.
The puppy arrives having been handled the entire way by a familiar person. That matters for how they settle into your home in the first week.
Every one of them lives in our home. Not a kennel building, not a run out back. Underfoot, on the furniture, in the way. When you take a puppy from us, you're taking a piece of one of these dogs, so we think you should meet them first.
Every breeding dog is DNA tested. Where a dog carries a trait, we breed them only to a partner who is clear of it, so no puppy of ours can be affected. We'll show you the results for either parent of any litter, just ask.
Merlin came from a long line of titled European show dogs, and we bought him for one reason: we wanted a fluffy stud to raise alongside our two founding girls. He is the softest dog in the house and he knows it. He will love into you and hug you back like a teddy bear.
DNA: a carrier. He is bred only to clear girls, which means none of his puppies can ever be affected. His daughter Darlene is triple clear herself. Available at stud.
Odin is out of our Jessie, and he is the calm one: steady, watchful, and startlingly smart. He passes both on. The puppies he throws are level-headed and easy to live with, which is exactly what we want going home to a family.
DNA: triple clear for DM, vWD and EIC. Carries the fluff gene that runs through his line.
We named her after Pinky and the Brain and she went and grew into it. She is the smartest dog we have ever had, and the undisputed queen of the side eye. Hysterically funny, endlessly clever, and a wonderful mother.
Her daughter Darlene is triple clear and a double fluff.
Misty came to us from Minnesota with her sister Myra at eight weeks old. She sits at the back of the pack and she is the gentlest dog here. She throws quiet, loving puppies. If you want an easygoing dog, hers is the litter to wait for. A lovely, attentive mother.
Mother of our September litter.
Misty's full sister, and her opposite. Myra is front of the pack: outgoing, bold, first to everything. Her puppies are more dominant, which suits a confident home or someone who wants a dog with real presence.
Not currently expecting. We're waiting for the right full fluff pairing.
Angel is our blue merle girl and something a bit different. She is 98% Pembroke. Her mother is AKC, her father a blue-eyed merle, and because of the merle coat and the blue eyes, the AKC will not register her. She is registered with CKC instead, and we say so plainly.
She throws stunning blue-eyed merle fluffies, and she is the sweetest dog in the house. She and Merlin are inseparable.
Arwen hasn't had a litter yet. We're in no hurry. A girl gets bred when she's ready and not before, and that's a decision we'd rather take slowly than regret.
These three are retired. They don't have litters any more and they don't need to. They've earned the couch. But every dog in our program traces back to them, and we think that's worth showing rather than quietly leaving off the website.
One of the two girls this whole program was built on. Merlin was bought to be her stud.
The other founder. Celtic Corgis started with Shannon and Clare, and everything since has come from that.
Mother to both Odin and Pinkey, so she's behind a great many of our puppies. Fully retired now and thoroughly spoiled.
Tell us what you're after, whether that's a red and white smooth coat, a fluffy tri, a blue-eyed merle, a calm dog or a bold one, and we'll tell you honestly which of our girls is most likely to give it to you, and roughly when.
Every breeding dog in our program is DNA tested for the three conditions most relevant to Pembroke Welsh Corgis:
These are recessive conditions: a dog needs two copies to be affected. A dog with one copy is a carrier: perfectly healthy, and able to pass the trait on but never to show it.
When one of our dogs carries a trait, we breed them only to a partner who is clear of it. That pairing cannot produce an affected puppy. It's a deliberate choice, and it's why we test before we plan a litter rather than after.
We're happy to share written test results for the parents of any litter. Just ask.
Every Celtic Corgi puppy comes with a one-year health guarantee. Puppies go home with vaccinations appropriate to their age, and started puppies leave with their full series complete.
[ADD: your specific guarantee terms — what's covered, what's required of the buyer, how a claim works.]
Like every breed, Pembrokes have a handful of conditions worth knowing about. The three we screen for by DNA are degenerative myelopathy (DM), a late-onset spinal cord disease, von Willebrand's disease (vWD), a clotting disorder, and exercise-induced collapse (EIC). Every breeding dog in our program is tested for all three through Embark and Wisdom Panel.
Beyond genetics, the breed's own build is the thing to understand. Pembrokes are a long dog on short legs, so back problems and joint wear are the realistic long-term concerns, and the single biggest factor in both is weight. A corgi kept lean lives an easier life than one that isn't. Their eyes and hips are also worth asking any breeder about.
We'd rather tell you this plainly than let you find it somewhere else. Ask us anything on this list and we'll answer straight.
Yes. We provide written results for both parents of any litter on request.
[Your honest answer. Buyers trust breeders who answer this directly.]
When my kids were little, we raised farm and ranch dogs, working dogs with a job to do, and AKC Chihuahuas for the house. Two very different dogs for two very different parts of our life, and I never thought one animal could be both.
Then my kids got older and brought home a corgi.
That dog did both. A real working mind, the kind that needs a job and will invent one if you don't give it one, attached to a heart of gold. She'd work all morning and then put her chin on your foot all afternoon. One of ours went on to become a service dog after many, many hours of training. That's the breed: they'll stay by your side through thick and thin, no matter where you are or what you're doing.
That's how Celtic Corgis started, and it's still the whole idea. We're in Mountain View on the Big Island. The dogs live in my home, not in a facility somewhere, and the puppies grow up underfoot, in the noise and traffic of an actual household. A trainer works with them before they ever go home, and I post their progress on Facebook Live every Sunday so you can watch your puppy grow up before you meet it.
What I care about most is the match. Tell me what your life actually looks like: the kids, the yard, the hours you work, whether you want a hiking partner or a couch companion. Then I'll tell you honestly which puppy fits, or whether this litter is the wrong one to wait for. If I don't have your dog, I'll help you find it somewhere else.
And when it's time, I don't hand your puppy to a shipping company. I fly with them, in the cabin, and put them in your hands myself.
— Melody, Celtic Corgis
Every one of these is a verified owner review from our Good Dog profile.
"Melody answered any questions I had and even flew down to Oahu to deliver the pups to us."
— Christina D., verified owner
"It was clear that my Tilly was well taken care of and socialized before she came home with me. Training her has been exceedingly easy with the prior care that was given."
— Molly H., verified owner
"It is clear that my puppy came from a loving caring environment. She even has a dog trainer work with the puppies! Buckley is well socialized and in excellent health!"
— Gretta S., verified owner
"She kept me updated with my pup's progress until he came home. She does FB live every Sunday to show the pups progress and training. This is my first experience getting a puppy from a breeder and I feel like I've been spoiled."
— Julie V., verified owner
"After months of run-around with others we stumbled across Melody and we are just elated at the experience we had. She never once gave us any reason of doubt."
— Ashley H., verified owner
We don't ship. We deliver. I fly with your puppy in the cabin and hand them to you personally. See Delivery.
A fluffy Pembroke is the same breed as any other Pembroke, with a long coat instead of the usual short one. It comes from a recessive gene, so two normally coated parents can both carry it and produce a fluffy puppy. Nothing about a fluff is a health issue. They simply need more brushing.
We tell buyers this plainly: the long coat is a disqualifying fault under the AKC breed standard. A fluffy Pembroke cannot be shown in AKC conformation. That is a separate thing from registration, and the two get confused constantly. Our fluffs are out of AKC parents and go home with full AKC registration, exactly like our smooth coats. They just could not be shown.
European lines have long favored the fluffy coat, along with natural tails and dewclaws, which is why we call this our European style program. Most American breeders will not produce a fluff at all. We do, deliberately, because we love them and because mainland families come looking for them.
It means those puppies are bred to the AKC breed standard: red and white with white markings, correct type and structure, and tails docked as the standard calls for. That is our primary program and the one we hold to the standard most strictly.
We say show quality because they are bred to be capable of it. We do not claim any titles we have not earned, and we will always tell you honestly what a given puppy is and is not.
Vaccinations appropriate to age, a one-year health guarantee, and a starter kit: a toy, a blanket that smells like mom, potty pads, a collar and a leash.
Yes. Every AKC puppy goes home on full registration. Most breeders send pet puppies out on limited registration, which means you could never register a litter from your own dog. We don't do that.
We don't have bloodlines so precious that someone else shouldn't own them. If we did, we wouldn't be selling them. We raise family pets with show quality. If you fall in love with your dog and decide years from now that you'd like to carry on their line, that decision belongs to you.
Joining is free and commits you to nothing. When a litter is planned or a started puppy becomes available, waitlist families hear first and choose first.
Our puppies are usually spoken for before they're announced publicly. Tell us what you're looking for, smooth coat or fluff, and we'll be in touch before the next litter is listed anywhere else.
Want a puppy that's already potty trained? Ask about our started puppies: home at ~4 months, fully vaccinated.