For her eighteenth birthday in 1944, the then Princess Elizabeth was given Susan the corgi. All subsequent corgis bred by The Queen have been descended from Susan. As well as her love of corgis, The Queen has also bred 'dorgis' - a cross between dachshund and corgis.
Queen Elizabeth II was well known for her love of dogs, and corgis have become an internationally recognised symbol of her reign.
One of the most well-known royally-loved breeds, famously championed by Queen Elizabeth II, is the Welsh Corgi. During her reign, the Queen owned more than thirty of these friendly, happy, and fun-loving dogs.
She owned two other corgis, named Muick (pronounced Mick) and Sandy, as well as a cocker spaniel named Lissy and a dorgi named Candy. What's a dorgi? It's a dachshund and corgi mix that Queen Elizabeth II herself is often credited with creating a few decades ago.
The royal corgis are the Pembroke Welsh Corgi dogs formerly owned by Queen Elizabeth II and her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Fond of corgis since she was a small child, Elizabeth II owned more than 30 corgis from her accession in 1952 until her death in 2022.
Elizabeth's love for corgis began in 1933 when her father, King George VI, brought home a Pembroke Welsh corgi they named Dookie. Images of a young Elizabeth walking the dog outside their lavish London home would be the first among many to come over the decades.
Royal life
For her eighteenth birthday in 1944, the King gave Princess Elizabeth a two-month-old Pembroke Corgi puppy with the registered name Hickathrift Pippa; she was called Sue, which became Susan.
The King has long been a fan of Jack Russell terriers and he and the Queen Consort own two, Bluebell and Beth, which were rescued from Battersea Cats and Dogs Home over a decade ago.
She was often photographed with one or more of her corgis sitting at her feet or trailing behind her. At the time of her death, she owned four dogs, a source previously told CNN: two Pembroke Welshi corgis named Sandy and Muick, one “dorgi” (a dachshund-corgi hybrid) named Candy, and one cocker spaniel named Lissy.
King Charles and Queen Camilla
Charles and Camilla are currently proud parents to two Jack Russell Terriers, Bluebell and Beth. Occasionally, they assist with Camilla's royal duties—sometimes even unveiling plaques themselves, as total champ Beth recently did at the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
Saluki. Known as the “Royal Dog of Egypt,” the saluki is one of the oldest living dog breeds with carvings of the dogs appearing in Sumerian tombs from as far back as 7000 B.C. These stunning hunting dogs were highly regarded by Ancient Egyptian royalty for their grace, beauty, stamina, and speed.
1. Toto – Cairn Terrier. Undeniably the most famous dog in history is Toto. Toto, whose real name was Terry, was abandoned as a puppy.
Akita. Akitas are one of the most loyal dog breeds. Bred for guarding royalty and nobility in feudal Japan, this courageous and alert breed is naturally suspicious of strangers. Akitas will keep watch over you and your family at all times.
The Queen's corgis were pembroke Welsh corgis – not to be confused with cardigan Welsh corgis, which remain on the Kennel Club's vulnerable breeds list. “The pembroke is a leaner build,” says Kevin Egan, editor of Our Corgi World, the newsletter of the principal club for pembroke owners, The Welsh Corgi League.
Beloved by the late Queen Elizabeth II, corgis have become an enduring symbol of the British royal family. But there is a new breed on the block -- the plucky Jack Russell Terrier. Bluebell and Beth, two rescue dogs belonging to King Charles III's wife Queen Camilla, are the new hairy residents of Buckingham Palace.
The crisply coated Scottish Deerhound, “Royal Dog of Scotland,” is a majestically large coursing hound struck from the ancient Greyhound template. Among the tallest of dog breeds, the Deerhound was bred to stalk the giant wild red deer.
The Duke and Duchess of York will inherit two of the Queen's most prized possessions, her corgis. Queen Elizabeth II died on 8 September, aged 96, and it was announced on 11 September that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson would take on the animals, named Muick and Sandy.
Queen Elizabeth II accidentally created a new breed.
That variation is the dorgi — a cross between a dachshund and a corgi that happened when one of the queen's corgis had a tryst with one of Princess Margaret's dachshunds named Pipkin, BBC News reported.
The corgis, named Muick and Sandy, will live at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, the sprawling estate the prince shares with his ex-wife.
Sign up to our TeamDogs newsletter for your weekly dose of dog news, pictures and stories. Despite owning a cat, rabbits and other small animals as a child, Diana always longed for her own dog. Before marrying Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, Diana spent time with his yellow labrador, Harvey.
Queen Camilla's Coronation outfit included nod to beloved rescue dogs as viewers spot sweet detail. Royal fans said the nod to the Queen's Jack Russells Beth and Bluebell was 'absolutely lovely' as Battersea thanked Camilla.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are undoubtedly very much in love, with public appearances always seeing them laughing and joking together, but reports say the couple does not share a bed. There's no trouble in paradise, though. It's customary for royal couples to sleep in different bedrooms.
Corgis Muick and Sandy were brought outside Windsor Castle ahead of the coffin's arrival on the Long Walk, a 2.6-mile avenue that leads to the castle.
Queen Elizabeth II was in fact survived by four dogs: two corgis, a dorgi and a cocker spaniel. The last, Lissy, is a baffler, since she wasn't of either breed for which the Queen had such pronounced preference, and Elizabeth named her after herself.
But Sandy and Muick — the latter is named after one of the sovereign's favorite lochs on her Scottish estate, Balmoral — represented a break from tradition. Neither of them descended from the Queen's first dog, a Pembroke Welsh corgi known as Susan.