Hi Nancy,
My suggestion is to leave your Rugosa alone in the fall & let it go thru the winter. Do your pruning in the spring---remove any (1) "dead, damaged or diseased" canes (2)remove any "crossing over" canes & (3)after the bush is 3 years old, do renewal pruning. One thing you can do in the fall is adjust your pH if you have alkaline soils---Rugosas are the least tolerant of alkaline soils---I don't know what you have in Nebraska but have heard that some of the plains states have this problem.
Larry