Andrew Parker Bowles

Her Majesty’s enduring love of dogs and horses

Queen Elizabeth II with three of her corgis in 1973 [Press Association]

In 1995, Her Majesty was heard to remark that the worst aspect of the Parker Bowles divorce was that she had got Danny back. Danny was a corgi given to Camilla and me by the Queen in the early 1990s. She had previously given us a corgi called Windsor Flame who was wonderful, intelligent and brave. Danny had none of these qualities. He was short in looks, legs and temper. After the divorce he returned to Windsor, where he spent the rest of his life, very happy, in the care of Mrs Nancy Fenwick, who was unofficially the keeper of the Queen’s dogs.

I came to realise how much the Queen’s dogs meant to her, how much she loved them and how very knowledgeable she was about them. She owned more than 30 corgis during her lifetime. Animal psychologist Dr Roger Mugford, after watching Her Majesty feed her dogs, each in turn, eldest first, wrote: ‘There is barely anyone on the planet who could achieve that control over their dogs.’

Princess Elizabeth’s first dog was given to her by her father as a seventh birthday present. It was a Pembrokeshire corgi named Dookie. Corgis are Welsh cattle-herders by nature and are known as ‘heelers’ for their tendency to nip at the heels of the cattle to keep them moving. Human ankles can be a substitute for cattle hooves, as many a royal footman discovered. Her Majesty’s favourite corgi was said to be Susan, who after the Queen’s wedding was hidden under a carriage rug and taken by her owner from Buckingham Palace to Broadlands for her honeymoon. When Susan died, her gravestone read: ‘Susan, for almost 15 years the faithful companion of the Queen.’

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With Susan at Balmoral Castle in 1952 [Getty Images]

‘There is barely anyone on the planet who could achieve that control over their dogs’

‘Dorgis’ became members of the Queen’s pack as a result of an unofficial friendship between the Queen’s corgi Tiny and Princess Margaret’s miniature dachshund.

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