They Treat Their Dogs Like Royalty

  Posted on April 29, 2011  by Joy of Living  No comments

With the focus on the Royal Wedding, I thought I’d take this opportunity to write a bit about the Royal Family and their love of dogs.  Following are some facts about the British Royal Family and their love for their pets:

• Some royal pets have merited their own portraits, and, as in many households, were considered very much members of the family. When Queen Victoria’s beloved Collie, Noble, died in 1887, he was buried in the grounds of the castle and given his own gravestone.
• A terrier named Caesar belonging to King Edward VII, and having outlived the king, walked behind His Majesty’s coffin in the funeral procession.
• The current Queen is, of course, associated with the Corgi. The breed was introduced to the Royal Family by her father, King George VI, in 1933 when he bought a Corgi called Dookie from a local kennels.

For her eighteenth birthday, The Queen was given a Corgi named Susan from whom numerous successive dogs were bred. Some Corgis were mated with dachsunds (most notably Pipkin, who belonged to Princess Margaret) to create ‘Dorgis’.

At present, The Queen owns four Corgis: Linnet, Monty, Willow and Holly and three Dorgis: Cider, Candy and Vulcan. The Queen also breeds and trains Labrador Retrievers and cocker spaniels.

The Queen’s corgis travel with her to the various residences, and Her Majesty looks after them herself as much as possible given her busy schedule.

Other members of the Royal Family own dogs of various breeds. The Duchess of Cornwall owns two Jack Russell terriers, Tosca and Rosie.

Information for this post from royal.gov.uk and “Dog-o-Pedia:  A Compendium of Doggone Facts”