The Dog Breed You Didn't Realize Was Created By The Queen

The Queen has been a lifelong dog-lover. She has owned dogs almost her whole life, and there have almost always been multiple dogs accompanying her around Buckingham Palace. The House of Windsor's long history of owning royal corgis actually began with her father, King George VI. He had brought the first corgi, a dog named Dookie, into the royal home in 1933, when the Queen was just seven years old, according to Marie Claire, and she has continued the tradition of keeping royal dogs in the palace ever since.

However, while she has certainly had many royal corgis through her life, the Queen's current dog is not a purebred corgi, but a new dog breed that was created by the Queen herself. The new breed came about when one of the Queen's corgis mated with another royal pet, a dachshund named Pipkin that belonged to her sister, Princess Margaret, in 1971. The result was an adorable dachshund-and-corgi mix that has been dubbed the "dorgi," according to Bustle.

However, the Queen wasn't new to the art of breeding puppies. Her first foray into breeding occurred all the way back in 1949 with her first corgi, a puppy named Susan, who she received as an 18th birthday gift. In fact, many of the royal corgis she owned over the next five decades were Susan's direct descendants, according to Vanity Fair.

At one point in 2013, Manchester Evening News reported the Queen had five corgis and four dorgi mixes running around the palace. Unfortunately, many of these beloved pets have since passed away. The Queen's last corgi, her beloved Whisper, died in 2018, and Vulcan, a dorgi, passed away in late 2020.

Per Express UK, the Queen's only remaining dog companion is a dorgi named Candy. Sadly, it seems like Candy may be the Queen's last dorgi ever. Because the Queen does not wish to leave behind any dogs after her death, she has chosen to stop breeding her beloved pups in her later years.

That didn't stop someone from giving the Queen the gift of two corgi puppies last March, as Today reports. As such, they're the first corgis she's owned as an adult that weren't direct descendants of her first corgi, Susan. The Washington Post reported that a Buckingham Palace spokesperson has declined to provide any further details.