17 Photos Of Queen Elizabeth II With Her Many, Many Dogs

Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, 2022. She will be remembered for her 70 years on the throne — and her love of dogs.

“She loves animals and she absolutely adores dogs. She always has done, they were her first love and they will be her last,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward told Newsweek before her death.

She reportedly owned more than 30 dogs throughout her seven-decade reign, loving corgis the most.

A young Princess Elizabeth saw friends with corgis, and wanted one too, according to the BBC.

Her first corgi was initially named Rozavel Golden Eagle (yes, seriously).

The dog was renamed Dookie (pictured here) after the kennel staff discovered that the pup would be living with the Duke of York.

On her 18th birthday, she was gifted a Windsor Pembroke Corgi named Susan, and the dog’s descendants lasted 14 generations of the Queen’s dogs.

In the wake of the Queen’s passing, people may be wondering: What happens to her dogs? Before her death, she had four dogs — two corgis, a dorgi (a dashchund-corgi mix) and a cocker spaniel.

Newsweek reports that she stopped breeding her beloved corgis in 2015 because she “did not want to leave any behind,” her horse trainer Monty Roberts claims. However, Prince Andrew gifted her dogs before her death.

“I imagine the dogs would be looked after by the family, probably Andrew [as] he’s the one that gave them to her, they’re quite young, the corgi and the dorgi,” Seward told Newsweek.

Author Penny Junor of All The Queen’s Corgis, however, pondered that the staff of Buckingham Palace would be responsible for her pets, mainly her dressmaker and her page.

Junor also revealed that there is a special room in the Queen’s apartment at Buckingham Palace for her dogs to sleep.

“There is a special corgi room where they have raised wicker baskets lined with cushions to keep draughts away,” Junor wrote.

Of the 775 rooms in Buckingham Palace, her dogs were bound to have one to themselves!

Brian Hoey, author of Royal Pets By Appointment, also confirmed that the dogs lived quite the life with the Queen. They were served chef-prepared meals at 5 p.m. sharp of chicken and steak. Sometimes drizzled with gravy!

After all, Her Royal Highness once said: “My corgis are family.”