That appearance is normal for winter. Are your plants in full sun? Do they get ample moisture and never dry out? That's all they require.

Looking scraggly is pretty good for red twig dogwoods. No, really. But I would give them another year. Try root pruning a little to see if they throw up some more stems. Once they establish, pruning back hard to rejuvenate increases the numbers of vigorous, young stems that have the best color.

Scott

I have both ... full red-twigged dogwoods ... and scraggly ones.

FWIW, the variegated foliage varieties are working better for me.

It seems that it's taking my non-variegated's longer to get established ... although they definitely get less sun than the others.

Osier dogwoods (Cornus sericea, syn. stolonifera) are native to this area and will grow anywhere, including boggy, wet conditions, very dry conditions and in full sun to nearly full shade - exceedingly adaptable plants. They are stoloniferous in habit and will form dense thickets. Tatarian and bloodtwig dogwoods (C. alba and sanguinea) are less aggressive spreaders but are nearly equally adaptable to varied growing conditions.

Cutting all of these forms back annually (stooling or coppicing) will increase their bulk and regenerate strong stem coloring. This can be done even with very young plants. It also helps to control the rather rangey size some of these shrubs can grow to.

I take about 1/3 of my stems out every year. The older stems, 3+ years, usually have less winter color. The regular trimming keeps new branches coming up, gives good winter color. Also keeps them contained, old growth gets very scraggly, turns into a thicket quickly.
My bushes are varigated leaf, to get a two season appeal They are in heavy ground, which holds water well. I do water some in dry times. Semi-shady days, which also keeps them smaller.

With very small or spindly new bushes, I would try topping them. Just cut off the top few inches of a couple stems, see if it encourages side growth, without removing the whole stem. It will help get the root growth going better, so reward might be next year with more sprouts.

Growing conditions in the PNW differ vastly from NJ. On the East Coast C. sericea inhabits consistently moist/wet areas almost always in full sun. It's most sensible to grow plants in there preferred environment. Out here, C. racemosa is the shrubby dogwood of choice for more challenging landscape niches.

Pruning is the answer. You need to go down to the base and remove at least 1/3 of the old stems. They may look really weak for the first part of spring but will quickly regenerate! Do this at least every other year. You can take the cuttings and try to get them to root and start new bushes.

Well, I was going to give a detailed response but I think goodhors did a great job of saying what I was going to. That is exactly how I treat mine.

Need to find out why they are struggling before considering pruning. Also: I have not found these to be very strong about growing back from complete decapitation, doing it in thirds is probably better.