One constant of Queen Elizabeth II’s long life was her love affair with dogs, specifically the very many corgis and dorgis (half-dachshund, half-corgi) that she bred beginning in childhood. Though the late queen’s corgis are mostly remembered for their presence in her portraits and a few memes, the dogs weren’t the adorable lap accessories you might have expected. In his rollicking new biography, Q: A Voyage Around the Queen, journalist Craig Brown writes that the dogs were actually kind of a nightmare to train and live with.
“Corgis, are, it turns out, an unpredictable, temperamental bunch, one minute cuddly, the next psycho, the Corleones of the dog world,” Brown writes. He tells the story of Dookie, the first corgi to enter the royal family, and his many misdeeds, including biting a politician who came to visit. “Dookie did not restrict his aggression to humans: he would happily attack the dining room chairs at Royal Lodge, the family home in Windsor Great Park.”
Nevertheless, the queen did continue to breed them, and throughout her life she owned 83 corgis and dorgis over 14 generations of breeding. Brown writes that there were plenty of dog attacks in the palace, and the victims were close to home. “Like the Corleone clan, their disposition towards violence stayed in their genes from one generation to the next,” he notes. “In 1984, Piper, the great-great-great-grand dorgi of Honey [the queen’s first mixed-breed dog] sank his teeth in several victims, including the Queen Mother and Prince Edward, and was dispatched on a one-way trip to Gatcombe, to be overseen by Princess Anne, who has a soft spot for nippers and biters.”
That said, the queen did figure out some tricks for getting them to be quiet, and even Prince Philip was a little confused by their deep bond. “Coincidentally, the way to scare off a belligerent corgi is the same as for a belligerent human being: a blast from the bagpipes,” Brown writes. “Happily, the Queen always kept a set of bagpipes at hand.”
The last dog in the queen’s original lineage, Willow, died in April 2018, and at first she declined to get another because she didn’t want any dogs to outlive her. During the coronavirus pandemic, however, she got a few new dogs to serve as her companions. After her death in September 2022, the final two dogs, Muick and Sandy, went to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the current residents of Royal Lodge. In August, Ferguson shared a few photos of the dogs, along with a comment about the role they play in her life, for International Dog Day. She wrote, “For all the unconditional love, loyalty, and joy they bring into our lives, Sandy and Muick will be getting an extra treat on their special day!”
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