Royal lines of duty

The Queen’s passion for pets is well documented, but she has also played a part in breeding the Sandringham gundogs, as Martin Deeley finds out

- Martin Deeley

For HM the Queen the short periods of time in which she can relax are most precious. Her constant companions, the royal dogs, corgis and ‘dorgies’, and her gundogs — labradors and cocker spaniels — provide the opportunities to unwind in the privacy of her home or on her estates. Whether she is visiting the kennels, walking on the estate, helping with the training or working on shoot days, Her Majesty’s dogs provide that means of escape that everyone needs.

Though extremely modest when talking of her knowledge and ability with dogs, the Queen has a wide experience of gundogs — particularly the way they work — and her handling ability either in competition or pickingup is undoubtedly that of a true expert. She keeps mainly labradors because she felt it was a normal thing to do, following in the footsteps of her father, King George VI. But the King did not encourage the young Princess Elizabeth; he did not feel it was right that princesses should be working gundogs in the field.

The young Princess, however, had other ideas and at Balmoral would take corgis, or any dog available, to find the birds. When relating tales of these times, the Queen smiles at the memory of the corgis, which have very good noses, finding more game in the deep heather than the labradors. For a corgi, however, retrieving is a little difficult, so she would watch the dogs working and read from their actions where they had found the grouse, rescuing them from the depths of the heather.

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