The late Queen was an animal lover – and she had a special place in her heart for corgis, which began when her father bought a puppy for Elizabeth and her sister Margaret
The late Queen had a love of corgis that stemmed all the way back to her childhood. The late monarch owned more than 30 corgis over the years – but despite their lavish lifestyle, the dogs were not always well behaved!
Elizabeth II’s first dog, named Dookie, was given to her and her younger sister Princess Margaret when they were just children. It was a gift from their father George VI after the girls fell in love with the breed while visiting the corgis owned by the children of the Marquess of Bath.
According to reports, in July 1933, three corgi puppies were brought to the family home at 145 Piccadilly for the family to choose from. Out of the three pups, Dookie was chosen because of his slightly longer tail, with then-Princess Elizabeth remarking: “So that we can see whether he is pleased or not.”
He earned the nickname Duke by breeder Thelma Grey – he was born “Rozavel Golden Eagle” – because he became “snooty” after being selected by the royal family. That then evolved into Dukie and then Dookie; the family loved the name and it stuck.
Dookie was a bit of a handful, however. In his new book “A Voyage Around the Queen”, Craig Brown reflected on the late monarch’s love of corgis, writing, via GB News: “Corgis, are, it turns out, an unpredictable, temperamental bunch, one minute cuddly, the next psycho, the Corleones of the dog world.”
He continued: “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.” Prince Andrew has lived at Royal Lodge since 2003, where he and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson now care for two of the late Queen’s corgis. The Queen herself was a victim of her beloved corgis, and was once forced to get three stitches after a nasty bite. And in 1968 there was even a call for the royal staff to put up a “Beware of the dog” sign at Balmoral after one of the corgis reportedly bit the postman.
The Queen received the first corgi of her own, Susan, for her 18th birthday in 1944. Her bond with the dog was so strong that she even took her on her honeymoon with Prince Philip in 1947. She would go on to have more than 30 corgis during her lifetime, all of which she bred from Susan. The monarch’s corgis famously wherever she went – from palace to palace, and on helicopters, trains, and in limousines. At Christmas at Sandringham they reportedly each had their own stocking, filled by the Queen herself.
Princess Diana is said to have coined the phrase “a moving carpet” to describe the jumble of dogs that would precede the monarch when she entered a room. The Queen, meanwhile, is said to have called them “the girls” and “the boys”. In all her years of breeding, the Queen never sold any of her puppies. All stayed with her, or were given to breeders, relatives or friends.
