Queen Elizabeth II owned more than 30 Pembroke Welsh Corgis across her lifetime, a devotion beginning at age seven and ending with her death on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral (Royal corgis – Wikipedia). No other modern British monarch is so closely identified with a single breed. The corgis appeared on a Golden Jubilee crown coin, in a 2012 James Bond sketch with Daniel Craig, and on the cover of Vanity Fair‘s Summer 2016 edition.
Dookie: The Puppy That Started It All
In July 1933, the Duke of York – later King George VI – visited breeder Thelma Gray at her Rozavel Kennels in Surrey. His daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, had fallen in love with the corgis owned by the children of the Marquess of Bath. Gray brought three puppies to 145 Piccadilly. The Duchess chose the pup registered as Rozavel Golden Eagle for his slightly longer tail, remarking that a dog should have something to wag “so that we can see whether he is pleased or not” (Dookie (dog) – Wikipedia)). The Rozavel staff nicknamed him “Dookie” after his owner’s ducal title. A press photograph of Princess Elizabeth with Dookie at Balmoral sparked nationwide interest in the breed (A history of The Queen’s Corgis – The Royal Kennel Club).
Dookie died in 1939 at the onset of the Second World War. A second corgi, Rozavel Lady Jane, produced two puppies with a Rozavel dog named Tafferteffy – Carol and Crackers. Crackers became a devoted companion to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, retiring with her to the Castle of Mey in Scotland and dying in November 1953. But Dookie and Crackers were never mated, so this first generation did not continue the line.
Susan: The Foundation of a Dynasty
On 21 April 1944, Princess Elizabeth received a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Susan – registered name Hickathrift Pippa – as an 18th birthday gift. Elizabeth smuggled Susan under blankets in her royal carriage on her honeymoon with Prince Philip in 1947. The Royal Kennel Club records: “Susan was mated to one of Thelma Gray’s dogs, Ch. Rozavel Lucky Strike. This mating founded the line of Windsor Pembroke Corgis, which continued for 15 generations.” Susan died on 26 January 1959 and is buried at Sandringham, her gravestone reading: “Susan / born 20 February 1944 / died 26 January 1959 / for almost 15 years the faithful companion of the Queen.”
The Dorgi: An Accidental Royal Breed
In the 1970s, one of the Queen’s corgis, Tiny, mated with a dachshund named Pipkin belonging to Princess Margaret, producing the first royal dorgi. Dame Prue Leith recalled the Queen correcting her at a Buckingham Palace lunch: “They’re not corgis, they’re dorgis.” The Queen owned at least 10 dorgis, including Cider, Berry, Vulcan, and Candy – the last surviving until after her death.
Pampered Life at Buckingham Palace
The corgis occupied a dedicated “Corgi Room” at Buckingham Palace, where each dog slept in an elevated wicker basket raised off the floor. The Queen Mother established strict dietary rules: meat dog biscuits in the morning, dog meal with gravy in the afternoon, no tidbits from the royal table. A gourmet chef prepared fresh rabbit and beef, and at Christmas the Queen made stockings of toys and biscuits for each dog. She personally oversaw feeding, chose the sires for every litter, and maintained a discreet relationship with Pembroke breeders. Nancy Fenwick, wife of the Windsor gamekeeper, served as her chief collaborator.
The corgis were not always well-behaved. In 1954, palace clock winder Leonard Hubbard was bitten by Susan at Royal Lodge. In March 1991, the Queen required three stitches after breaking up a fight among ten corgis. In 1999, a royal footman was demoted for pouring alcohol into the dogs’ food and water.
Stopping the Breeding Programme
By 2015, the Queen had decided to stop breeding corgis. She told horse whisperer Monty Roberts she “didn’t want to leave any young dog behind.” Her final litter, born 9 July 2003, produced eight puppies named after botanicals: Bramble, Cedar, Holly, Jasmine, Larch, Laurel, Rose, and Willow. She kept Holly and Willow but bred no more. In April 2018, Willow – the last of Susan’s direct line – died of cancer at age 15.
After Her Death: Sandy, Muick, and the Duke of York
In early 2021, Prince Andrew and his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, gave the Queen two puppies during Prince Philip’s hospital stay. Sarah, Duchess of York, found the pups. The Queen named the corgi Muick – after Loch Muick on the Balmoral estate – and the dorgi Fergus, after her uncle killed in the First World War. Fergus died from a heart defect at five months. A replacement corgi, Sandy, arrived in June 2021.
On 8 September 2022, the Queen died at Balmoral aged 96. A photograph of Muick and Sandy waiting outside Windsor Castle as the funeral cortege passed on 19 September became one of the most poignant images of the mourning (BBC News, 11 September 2022). Buckingham Palace confirmed Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson would care for the dogs. As of early 2026, following Andrew’s eviction from Royal Lodge, the corgis were photographed at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate.
Legacy and Influence
Queen Elizabeth II was one of the longest-established breeders of Pembroke Welsh Corgis in the world. She personally selected sires, and breeders “knew to be discreet, if contacted by her to visit Windsor.” The Kennel Club placed the Pembroke on its vulnerable breed list due to falling registrations, but after Netflix’s The Crown featured her corgis, puppy registrations rose 16 percent and 47 percent after the first and second series. The crown coin issued during the 2002 Golden Jubilee depicts the Queen with a corgi. From a puppy chosen for his wagging tail in 1933 to a dynasty spanning nine decades, the royal corgis remain inseparable from Elizabeth II’s reign.
