Queen's Corgis

[SkySoaringMagpie]

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/queens-corgis-rule-by-royal-appointment-20120923-26ey4.html

I had just come on for my shift at the Daily Mail when the news editor called me into the glass booth where he sat with his deputy. Two assistants manned switchboards, filtering out nutters. "Zwar, grab a cab to the palace. Find out what goes on with those horrible little dogs. How come they can bite her majesty?"

Over to the palace? What does one do? Go up to one of the Coldstream Guards and ask to be let in? Knock on the iron gates?

A good reporter, a good Australian reporter, did not ask questions. It was the 1960s and in the ruthlessness of Fleet Street, it was necessary to be noticed, to have an edge. Mine was never to ask questions when given orders. The reference library was there for the details, the phone numbers and how to go about it.

My corgis and I ... royal puppies are delivered to Heathrow Airport to accompany the Queen to Balmoral. Photo: AP

The first edition of the Evening News had a picture of the Queen with four of her corgis on leashes alleging two had bitten her majesty. The Queen, the caption said, ''was recovering''.

I phoned Buckingham Palace Could one perhaps speak to the press secretary? One could, sniffed the operator and put me through to Miss Anne Hawkins, the assistant press secretary.

Could one help, she inquired? I wondered if one could actually come around to the palace and sort of, well you know, have a word about the … er dogs?

''There would be no question," she said frostily, "of speaking to the person in charge of the corgis who is, of course, the Queen herself." But one could come and have a background chat.

It seemed too good to be true. I drove to the gates, was saluted by a policeman seven feet tall and waved through. The door was opened by a gentleman in tight jacket, pantaloons and buckled shoes. A flunky. In great ceremony he led me down a hallway lined with elephant tusks, shields, glass cases of silver trophies and to Miss Hawkins's tiny office. It held a tiny desk, two chairs, a mini hand-basin, a single-bar radiator and Miss Hawkins in pink twinset and two rows of pearls. ''Where would one care to begin?'' she said.

''Well,'' I said, '''one' wondered about the temper of the corgis. They were persistently in the news for biting policemen, palace sentries and the odd station master. Had there been an attack on a royal before?''

"Oh, they are no less boisterous or mischievous than any others," said Miss Hawkins.

''Who scolds them when they do wrong?"

"Oh, one cannot really go into that."

''Who trains them?''

A smile at last. "They have been taught to do tricks. They sit up and beg for food. And they roll over on their backs."

Yes, but who taught them to do that? A shake of her immaculately coiffured head. That question, again, was out of bounds.

One was quite obviously not about to tell the world about the private lives of her majesty's cantankerous little Welshmen.

"Perhaps if you would like to leave your questions I may be able to talk to the Queen?" she said, but not too convincingly. It was obviously a polite way of ending our fruitless little chat.

I drove back to my flat, typed a list of questions and drove back again, saluted this time by the policeman, and handed the flunky the sheet of paper.

Back to the office where I admitted I might have failed to get a story. "Well at least you got in, old boy," said the news editor. "I have never been there."

Two days later, a phone call. Miss Hawkins had not only spoken to her majesty, but the Queen had, seemingly quite enthusiastically, answered my questions. One returned rather fast to the palace.

My first question: how and where were the dogs fed? "The Queen, whenever she can", said Miss Hawkins, "has the dogs' food sent up in a dumb-waiter to the drawing room at Buckingham Palace, or Windsor, or Sandringham, at about five o'clock. It is retrieved by a footman who hands it to her majesty, who has donned rubber gloves.

''On the floor, on a tablecloth, stand their individual bowls, each with the dog's name on it, into which her majesty mixes meat, vegetables, gravy and biscuits." (I marvelled at the scene of Her Majesty on her knees).

"When the corgis finish their meal, the Queen clears things up and returns the bowls to a tray.

''She very much likes to look after them herself, and of course they go where she goes," said Miss Hawkins.

"If you see her in the palace on her way upstairs to one of the state rooms, the chances are that there will be a corgi or two with her. They just wander about with her everywhere. If they happen to wander in when a photograph is being taken they are included."

Miss Hawkins gave me a pencilled royal corgi family tree, explaining that her majesty was firmly in charge of breeding. Even when Tiny, a corgi, gave birth to seven puppies fathered by Princess Margaret's dachshund, Pipkin, it was, she insisted, "a planned marriage".

''Would one care to speak to the Queen's kennels?''

Thelma Gray, of the Rozavel Kennels, at Pirbright, Surrey, had had a 'By Appointment' relationship with the palace for years. The association went back to Dookie, the dog taken there for mating by the late King George VI in 1933. Mrs Gray's stud corgis had been mated with the Queen's bitches on many occasions.

Mrs Gray said: ''Her Majesty has done me the honour of discussing her dog-breeding plans with me, and on occasions I have suggested outstanding dogs owned by other owners as being the best choice of sires."

On the question of whether bride goes to groom, or vice versa, Mrs Gray said, "The stud dog is always taken to visit Windsor."

The particulars of the stud dogs chosen by the Queen had never been widely broadcast and were known only to a small circle of people, she said. "Therefore, such a stud dog's fee is in no way altered by his having fathered a litter of puppies to a royal corgi bitch; nor is the demand for his services in any way stimulated."

The Queen, since she was 18, had generally mated her bitches with dogs outside the ''family''. Because corgis had become trendy, ill-considered breeding has developed a strain of nasty-tempered pets.

When she wanted Heather ''married'', she chose Mrs Gray's high-strain gentleman Lees Maldwyn Lancelot.

And who house-trains the puppies? Her Majesty. If one of them does terrible things to a palace axminster, she rubs his nose in it. "The puppies are always house-trained by the Queen herself," said Mrs Gray.

There was one more link in the doggy saga. Alma McKee, who was for many years a cook at the palaces, told me: "I often used to take up the menus to the Queen Mother, when she was Queen, as the dogs were having their meal.

"When the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret were together at Clarence House, their dogs' feeding time was a ritual. Mother and daughter took rather a formal tea together at a small table covered with a white tablecloth in one corner of the drawing-room. Afterwards, they laid another tablecloth on the floor on which the dogs were given their meal.

''The royal corgis fully appreciate their privileged position and have the run of the house. By day, when I was there, they conducted a private war on the policemen who were always on duty to guard the house. The corgis hated their patrolling habits, or uniforms, and in the kitchen we were always sheltering enormous policemen who were being pursued by these small but relentless dogs."

One called Bee used to torment cook McKee.

"In Scotland I had to walk up the same stairway as the Queen when I went to my private rooms, and Bee used to lie in wait. One day she refused to let me pass.

"After lunch, the Queen's corgis used to come down to the kitchen, when they knew nobody was about, to see if they could snatch something to eat.

''I had a feeling all the time that these little dogs knew they belonged to a very special person. They had quite an aloof air. They did not want to talk to you unless you were very nice to them.

''They usually had ordinary meat, but they did enjoy venison. And they loved green vegetables.

"The dogs had their own little beds in the day nursery when Prince Charles and Princess Anne were babies.

''The blankets and cushions were pale brown and gold, to go with the dogs' colouring. One had a special blue cushion with red spots. At night, if Sugar did not think her basket was made up properly, she would get out and make it again herself."

Desmond Zwar is a journalist and author of 16 non-fiction books, including The Loneliest Man in the World - the Story of Rudolf Hess's Imprisonment.

[sandgrubber]

I was surprised to learn that the Queen has only two corgis . . . and two dashund x corgi's.

See the royal website at:

http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/RoyalAnimals/Familypets.aspx

Sure killed my respect for the animal sense of the royals. I'm not rabidly anti DD, but I can't see the sense of crossing two breeds, both of which are prone to back problems,

[Aziah]

I was surprised to learn that the Queen has only two corgis . . . and two dashund x corgi's.

See the royal website at:

http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/RoyalAnimals/Familypets.aspx

Sure killed my respect for the animal sense of the royals. I'm not rabidly anti DD, but I can't see the sense of crossing two breeds, both of which are prone to back problems,

Are they? I think that's quite a generalisation.

I don't agree - at all, particularly not when it comes to Corgis...it's not a "common" problem for them IMO/E

[sandgrubber]

I was surprised to learn that the Queen has only two corgis . . . and two dashund x corgi's.

See the royal website at:

http://www.royal.gov...Familypets.aspx

Sure killed my respect for the animal sense of the royals. I'm not rabidly anti DD, but I can't see the sense of crossing two breeds, both of which are prone to back problems,

Are they? I think that's quite a generalisation.

I don't agree - at all, particularly not when it comes to Corgis...it's not a "common" problem for them IMO/E

My sister in law gave up corgis after two of her three had serious spinal problems. See, also

http://www.corgi-tra...ealth-problems/

Are you saying the 'dorgi' is a good cross?

Edited September 24, 2012 by sandgrubber

[Parkeyre]

I was surprised to learn that the Queen has only two corgis . . . and two dashund x corgi's.

See the royal website at:

http://www.royal.gov...Familypets.aspx

Sure killed my respect for the animal sense of the royals. I'm not rabidly anti DD, but I can't see the sense of crossing two breeds, both of which are prone to back problems,

Are they? I think that's quite a generalisation.

I don't agree - at all, particularly not when it comes to Corgis...it's not a "common" problem for them IMO/E

My sister in law gave up corgis after two of her three had serious spinal problems. See, also

http://www.corgi-tra...ealth-problems/

Are you saying the 'dorgi' is a good cross?

No. Aziah is saying that your comment was not correct, and I agree with her. She said nothing about Dorgis or aliens or glitter.

[Aziah]

I was surprised to learn that the Queen has only two corgis . . . and two dashund x corgi's.

See the royal website at:

http://www.royal.gov...Familypets.aspx

Sure killed my respect for the animal sense of the royals. I'm not rabidly anti DD, but I can't see the sense of crossing two breeds, both of which are prone to back problems,

Are they? I think that's quite a generalisation.

I don't agree - at all, particularly not when it comes to Corgis...it's not a "common" problem for them IMO/E

My sister in law gave up corgis after two of her three had serious spinal problems. See, also

http://www.corgi-tra...ealth-problems/

Are you saying the 'dorgi' is a good cross?

Your sister is just one person and I don't believe everything I read.

I don't believe I said anything about a 'dorgi' being a good cross - don't put words in my mouth, where did I say anything about a dorgi being a good cross?! :laugh: you really need to be careful SG when suggesting people have said something when they clearly have not.

I was surprised to learn that the Queen has only two corgis . . . and two dashund x corgi's.

See the royal website at:

http://www.royal.gov...Familypets.aspx

Sure killed my respect for the animal sense of the royals. I'm not rabidly anti DD, but I can't see the sense of crossing two breeds, both of which are prone to back problems,

Are they? I think that's quite a generalisation.

I don't agree - at all, particularly not when it comes to Corgis...it's not a "common" problem for them IMO/E

My sister in law gave up corgis after two of her three had serious spinal problems. See, also

http://www.corgi-tra...ealth-problems/

Are you saying the 'dorgi' is a good cross?

No. Aziah is saying that your comment was not correct, and I agree with her. She said nothing about Dorgis or aliens or glitter.

No dorgis, alien or glitter going on in my posts!

[Steve]

Ive lived with Corgis for almost 50 years and not one not ever had a back problem

[Crisovar]

The only Corgi back problems I have encountered have been in obese dogs

[Mim]

I have one corgi out of the 6 I've had in my life with a back problem. Although, her problem is not caused by her conformation, it is a genetic disease which can affect numerous breeds including German Shepherds and Dobermanns.

I think it's very sweet that the Queen, despite being an extremely busy person, sets aside time to feed them every day and doesn't leave it to somebody else.

[sandgrubber]

I have one corgi out of the 6 I've had in my life with a back problem. Although, her problem is not caused by her conformation, it is a genetic disease which can affect numerous breeds including German Shepherds and Dobermanns.

I think it's very sweet that the Queen, despite being an extremely busy person, sets aside time to feed them every day and doesn't leave it to somebody else.

I find that

a) corgis are chondrodystrophic . . . built in to the breed standard . . . ie, they are bred to have a form of dwarfism that results in short legs in proportion to the length of the back

b) chondrodystrophic individuals have a much higher risk of disk problems (specifically, IVDD = intervertebral disk disease)

c) many corgi sites, and veterinary dog sites, warn that corgis are prone to disk problems

It is sweet that the Queen cares for her dogs. As the Beatles said: "Her Magisty's a pretty nice girl." Even people who think Royalty is silly widely admire The Queen for her strong, upright character. Nonetheless, I think that it's going in the wrong direction to cross two chondrodystrophic breeds. It's a bad example for the Royal-adoring public that the Queen has done so.

Labrador breeders shrug their shoulders on a regular basis to people saying that Labs are prone to HD. In reality they are #87 out of 164 (where #1 is worst) in the OFA's list for incidence of HD (see http://www.offa.org/stats_hip.html). Sure, you can find incidences of Labs with severe HD . . . they're the most common pedigree dog in the English speaking world. But in terms of incidence, 86 breeds have worse statistics. The 'bad' reputation has a good side. It means that many puppy buyers pay attention to hip and elbow scores . . . as do breeders. If and when they get good genetic tests for HD, they'll be rapidly adopted by breeders.

I don't know why corgi people are so defensive here. Defensiveness is bad for the breed. The corgi, by breed standards, has a form of dwarfism that is bad from the perspective of skeletal stability. If there were a back scoring method equivalent to the hip scoring method, all quality corgis would have bad scores. It may be true that this weakness only leads to clinical problems in a small minority of cases.. . just as a minority of radiographic HD result in clinical signs of dysplasia. Nonetheless, it's a genetic weakness.

If you're going to cross breed, for dog's sake, breed away from areas of genetic weakness. In my book it is not acceptable to cross corgis to a breed that is much more severely chondrodystrophic. A dorgi is an abomination of a DD . . . just as a KCCS x pug would be a bad idea.

[Steve]

Im not defensive Im honest .If it had been my experience that the stuff you read on the net regarding Pembroke Corgis were true I would say so. It's hard to believe that someone somewhere didnt just decide that because they were dwarfs that they must have problems that some other dwarfs do and I would be interested in seeing their data to prove that back issues are a problem in the breed. Surely if it were by now after having been around hundreds if not thousands of Corgis over a 50 year period I would have seen this.

[Aetherglow]

Slightly beside the point, but I'm interested to note that among the breeds more prone than Labradors to hip dysplasia on the OFA list are the Hybrid and the Maine Coon Cat!

I personally wish the Royals hadn't produced Dachy x Corgies just because it sets a bad example, particularly if they're claiming it was deliberate. And yes, breeding two breeds with anatomical exaggerations seems like a move unlikely to produce good outcomes in terms of health. I have no idea about the incidence of spinal problems in either breed, but it seems sensible to assume that you would wish to be extremely careful with health screening and monitoring in such breeds, and crossing them may produce unpredictable changes in an anatomical area already possibly at risk.