47 Fun Facts About Pembroke Welsh Corgi

What does the word 'corgi' mean in Welsh?

Dwarf dog. The name joins the Welsh cor, dwarf, and ci, dog; Welsh softens the c to a g inside a compound, which is why nobody says 'corci'.

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi was originally bred to herd which animals?

Cattle. Standing barely a foot tall, a corgi could dart in behind a herd many times its size and stay low enough for the answering kicks to sail over its head.

Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire, home of the two corgi breeds, lie in which part of Wales?

West Wales. Cardiganshire returned to the map as a county in April 1996 and lasted a single day before it was renamed Ceredigion, so the Cardigan corgi now carries a county name that its own county gave up.

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi descends from which family of dogs?

Spitz. The pricked ears and pointed muzzle are family traits; the breed club isn't sure which northern dogs its ancestors were, but every candidate it names, the Pomeranian and the Schipperke among them, is a spitz.

Why did Elizabeth II stop breeding corgis late in her reign?

To leave none behind. After owning more than 30 corgis, she is said to have told a friend who urged her to keep going that she didn't want any young dog to outlive her.

Which herding breed tops Stanley Coren's intelligence ranking, where the Pembroke is 11th?

Border Collie. The two work in opposite ways: the collie runs round to the front and gathers the flock, while the corgi, just outside Coren's top ten, pushes its animals forward from behind.

Which feature has traditionally set the Cardigan Welsh Corgi apart from the Pembroke at a glance?

Its long, bushy tail. The Pembroke's is docked or naturally stubby, and the American breed club sums up the difference in four words: 'the Cardigan has one'.

The breed standard says a Pembroke's head should resemble that of which animal?

A fox. Judges even check the geometry: lines run from the nose tip through the eyes to the ear tips, and across, should make a near-perfect equilateral triangle.

What did Elizabeth II personally fill with toys and biscuits for each of her corgis once a year?

A Christmas stocking. Each dog had its own at Sandringham, because the pack went wherever the Queen did, travelling between palaces by train, limousine and even helicopter.

The Pembroke's double coat is naturally water- and dirt-repellent, except in which long-coated variant?

The long, thin coat comes from a recessive gene and counts as a breed fault.

The 1936 picture book Our Princesses and Their Dogs, starring two royal corgis, went on sale days before which event?

Edward VIII's abdication. Its photographs of the Yorks as a cosy dog-loving family reached the shops just as the crisis made the princesses' father king, a stroke of royal public relations.

Which coat colour is accepted on a Cardigan Welsh Corgi but has no place in the Pembroke standard?

Blue merle. Among corgis the marbled grey-and-black coat is the Cardigan's alone, and breeders avoid mating two merles, because puppies that inherit the gene from both parents run a far higher risk of deafness and poor sight.

Before the railways, corgis helped drovers walk Welsh livestock more than 200 miles to which London market?

Smithfield. The long droves ended when the railways came and took the corgi's main job with them; the breed survived as a farmyard all-rounder until the show ring discovered it in the 1920s.

Degenerative myelopathy, the spinal disease that puts some elderly Pembroke corgis in wheelchairs, closely resembles which human illness?

ALS (motor neurone disease). Geneticists studying affected Pembrokes traced the dog illness to a mutation in SOD1, a gene already tied to ALS in people, which gave researchers a naturally occurring animal model of the human disease.

Which short-legged Scandinavian herding dog looks so like a corgi that the two may share Viking-age ancestors?

Swedish Vallhund. Nobody is sure which way the dogs sailed: one theory has Vikings bringing Vallhunds to Wales, another has them carrying corgis home to Sweden.

The royal corgi Monty was named after Monty Roberts, an American friend of Elizabeth II famous as what?

A horse whisperer. In 1989 the Queen invited the American cowboy to show her stable staff his gentle 'Join-Up' method and kept him on as an adviser; his namesake corgi began life as the Queen Mother's dog.

The Cardigan Welsh Corgi, the older of the two breeds, is traditionally said to have reached Wales with which people?

Celtic. The American Kennel Club dates the arrival to about 1200 BC, some two thousand years before the Pembroke appears, though a rival theory gives the credit to Norse settlers instead.

Sutter Brown, a Pembroke corgi, was known in the 2010s as the 'First Dog' of which US state?

California. Governor Jerry Brown's corgi, named after Gold Rush pioneer John Sutter, trotted along to political events and was credited with warming up his owner's famously cerebral image.

Until the 1930s, how did the Kennel Club register Pembroke and Cardigan corgis?

As one breed. The two types were shown and even bred together for about ten years, and when the split came some owners were simply left to say which kind their own dog was.

Which American illustrator set three picture books in Corgiville, a village of corgis?

Tasha Tudor. She wrote about what she lived with: a pack of her own corgis shared the Vermont home where she worked, and the house became known as Corgi Cottage.

Under which kennel name, borrowed from a royal residence, were Elizabeth II's home-bred corgis registered?

Windsor. The Queen ran her breeding programme from the castle grounds and gave many puppies away as presents, but she never sold a single one and kept them out of the show ring.

The corgi Muick, given to Elizabeth II in 2021, was named after a loch on which royal estate?

Balmoral. Loch Muick lies in the hills of the Queen's Highland estate and the puppy's name is said the same way, 'Mick'; he arrived in lockdown to lift her spirits while Prince Philip was in hospital.

Which studio put a lost Welsh corgi at the heart of its 1963 television film Little Dog Lost?

Walt Disney. Its hero, a corgi terrified of brooms since puppyhood, is swept away from his family in a storm and on his travels saves an old woman trapped under her overturned cart.

British registrations of Pembroke corgi puppies peaked at nearly 9,000 a year within a decade of which event?

Elizabeth II's coronation. The breed hit its high in 1960, seven years after the ceremony, then slid so far that by 2014 only 274 puppies were registered and it was listed as vulnerable.

The Kennel Club credited the Pembroke's UK revival partly to which Netflix series?

The Crown. Interest jumped when the second season showed a young Queen surrounded by her dogs, and in 2018 the Pembroke came off the Kennel Club's at-risk lists for the first time since 2009.

Which photographer shot Elizabeth II with her corgis and dorgis for a Vanity Fair cover marking her 90th birthday?

Annie Leibovitz. Her first royal sitting, in 2007, made headlines when a BBC trailer was cut to suggest the Queen had stormed out; the BBC apologised, and nine years on Leibovitz was asked back.

In Welsh folklore, corgis are said to have been gifted to human children by whom?

The Tylwyth Teg (fairies). In one telling, two children stumbled on a fairy funeral and were handed the fallen riders' steeds; the band of different fur over a corgi's shoulders is said to be the saddle mark.

What was the name of the first royal corgi, brought home by the future King George VI in 1933?

Dookie. The family picked him from three puppies because he had enough tail to wag, so they could tell when he was pleased; his name is said to come from his new owner's title, Duke of York.

The corgi Susan was given to Princess Elizabeth as a present for which occasion?

Her 18th birthday. The puppy she was given in 1944 founded a dynasty: every corgi the Queen went on to breed was descended from Susan, and she kept more than 30 of them herself.

How did the corgi Susan leave for Princess Elizabeth's honeymoon in 1947?

Hidden under rugs in the open carriage. The princess refused to be parted from her, so Susan rode along out of sight as the newlyweds drove through London on the way to their honeymoon.

One of Elizabeth II's dorgis shared its name with which science-fiction race?

The Vulcans. Vulcan the dorgi, who shares his name with the Roman god of fire as well as Mr Spock's people, died in 2020, leaving the Queen with a single dog for a time.

In 1954 Elizabeth II's corgi Susan bit a palace sentry and which other member of the household?

The royal clock winder. Leonard Hubbard was bitten as he walked into the nursery at Royal Lodge, and five days later Susan went for a Grenadier Guard on sentry duty as well.

What is a 'dorgi'?

A dachshund-corgi cross. The first litter was an accident of the 1970s, when a visiting dachshund got to one of the Queen's corgis; she liked the puppies so much that about ten more followed.

Pipkin, who fathered the first royal dorgis, was whose dog?

Princess Margaret's. The sisters were so charmed by the accidental litter that they put the two dogs together again, and about ten dorgi pups were born over the years.

The royal corgis slept in what kind of beds in Buckingham Palace?

Elevated wicker baskets. They stood in the dogs' own Corgi Room inside the Queen's private apartment, raised off the floor and lined with cushions to keep the draughts away.

In 1999 a royal footman was demoted for which corgi 'party trick'?

Pouring alcohol into their food and water. He was reported to enjoy watching the dogs stagger about; he escaped the sack but was demoted to a lower grade.

Three of Elizabeth II's corgis appeared alongside which star in a film for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony?

Daniel Craig. In the short film made for the London opening ceremony, the dogs greet 007 at Buckingham Palace and trot ahead of him to the Queen, who then leaves with her escort for the stadium.

Which corgi, the last of the line Elizabeth II bred herself, died in April 2018?

Willow. She was put down at almost 15 after suffering from cancer, and with her the line bred from Susan through 14 generations died out.

Who found the puppies that Prince Andrew gave Elizabeth II in 2021?

Sarah, Duchess of York. She and the Queen had stayed friends through dog walks long after the divorce, and when the Queen died the corgis went to live with Sarah and Andrew at Royal Lodge.

When her corgi Susan died in 1959, what did Elizabeth II personally design for her?

Her gravestone. The Queen sketched it herself and kept correcting the wording: 'for 15 years the faithful companion of the Queen' became 'almost 15 years' once she had checked Susan's date of birth.

In 2003 the royal corgi Pharos was put down after being mauled by an English bull terrier belonging to whom?

Princess Anne. Her terrier went for the corgis as they ran out to greet her at Sandringham that Christmas; a year earlier Anne had been fined in court after one of her dogs bit two boys in a park.

Atticus, the talking corgi king of Corginia, is a main character in which animated series?

Infinity Train. Voiced by Ernie Hudson, Atticus leaves his kingdom, a train carriage full of corgis, to travel with the heroine, and styles himself 'Uniter of the Cardigans and Pembrokes'.

In Cowboy Bebop, what is the name of the hyper-intelligent Corgi aboard the ship?

Ein. He joins the crew after a bounty hunt goes wrong, and the 'data dog' proves no ordinary pet: he answers the phone, plays shogi and hacks a supercomputer in seconds.

In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the loyal corgi Cheddar belongs to which characters?

Captain Raymond Holt and Kevin Cozner. The famously deadpan couple are devoted to him, and the series finale reveals that Holt's long-hidden tattoo shows Kevin's head on Cheddar's body.

Corgi Toys, the die-cast brand named for the Welsh dog, was made in which Welsh city from 1956?

Swansea. The Mettoy company picked the dog's name to honour its new Welsh home, and the factory at Fforestfach brought jobs to a district where the coal mines were shedding them.

In the 2019 animated film The Queen's Corgi, trouble starts when which world leader visits Buckingham Palace with his dog?

Donald Trump. His dog Mitzi sets her heart on the royal favourite, Rex, and the chase ends with Rex biting the president, the disgrace that sends him on his adventure outside the palace; the film was made by a studio in Brussels.

Which settlers are said to have brought the Pembroke's ancestors to Pembrokeshire after the Norman invasion?

Flemish. Henry I planted Flemish settlers in south Pembrokeshire in the early 1100s, and breed lore has it that the weavers among them brought the short-legged dogs that became the Pembroke.