Royal Family: How the Queen invented her own dog breed by accident

It’s well known how fond Queen Elizabeth II is of her dogs and the monarch is closely associated with popularising the Corgi breed. In fact when the Queen first began owning them the breed became one of the most popular in the UK but has since slipped in the ranks. Since then she got her first one aged 18 it’s thought she has now owned over 30 in her lifetime.

But what many people may not realise is that many of the Queen’s dogs have not been Corgis at all but Dorgis, a cross between the Dachshund and Corgi breed that the Queen herself is credited with creating. According to People, The story goes that one of her majesty’s Corgis named Tiny was left unattended with one of her sister Princess Margaret’s Dachshunds named Pipkin, and the two got very close indeed.

The result was the creation of the Dorgi, a hybrid between the two. Clearly the Queen was fond of the new breed as she continued to breed them for decades after their initial creation. As of right now she has three dogs, one Dorgi named Candy and a pair of Corgis.

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Her majesty is also used to having a few more dogs around the house, back in 2007 she had five Corgis, Monty, Emma, Linnet, Willow, and Holly, five Cocker Spaniels, Bisto, Oxo, Flash, Spick, and Span, as well as four Dorgis named Cider, Berry, Vulcan and Candy.

Corgis Monty, Willow, and Holly even starred in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony in the famous James Bond sequence which saw Daniel Craig in character accompanying the Queen to the event.

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Her latest new dogs came in the last year when son Prince Andrew bought the Queen a new pair of Corgis to keep her company when Prince Philip was in hospital. She named them Fergus and Muick but Fergus tragically passed away aged just five months due to a heart defect.

Her family then bought her another new Corgi in June 2021, on what would have been Prince Philip’s birthday just months after he died aged 99.

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