Royal Dog Breeds: 10 Dogs With Genuine Regal History

Royal Dog Breeds: 10 Dogs With Genuine Regal History

Long before the UK became a nation of 10.6 million pet dogs — roughly 28% of households, according to the PDSA — dogs were already status symbols, and the grandest households of all belonged to royalty. Last updated: July 2026, this guide rounds up ten breeds with real, documented royal history: not marketing folklore, but corgis in palaces, spaniels named after kings and hounds mummified beside pharaohs.

Some of these dogs guarded emperors. Others simply looked magnificent on a queen's lap. All of them earned their place in the story of how dogs became royalty's favourite companions.

Which British royal dogs are the most famous?

Pembroke Welsh Corgi

No breed is more tied to the British Crown than the corgi. Queen Elizabeth II was given her first, Susan, on her eighteenth birthday in 1944, and kept the line going for the rest of her life.

"Every one of Queen Elizabeth II's corgis — more than 30 across her lifetime — descended from a single dog, Susan." — The Royal Kennel Club

Despite that royal profile, the Pembroke is classed as a vulnerable native breed in the UK; Kennel Club registrations dipped below 300 in 2014 before a Jubilee-era revival pushed them to a thirty-year high in 2022.

Cavalier and King Charles Spaniel

These toy spaniels are named for King Charles II, who reigned from 1660 to 1685 and was rarely seen without a pack of them. A popular tale claims an Act of Parliament lets the breed enter any building in the land — but Parliament itself has confirmed no such law exists. The devotion was real; the decree is a myth.

Greyhound

For centuries the greyhound was the aristocrat's dog by law. English forest law, traditionally traced to King Canute around 1014, is said to have reserved greyhound ownership for the nobility, and in tenth-century Wales, killing one was reportedly a capital offence. Fast, elegant and exclusive, the greyhound was medieval Europe's ultimate hunting status symbol.

Which dogs ruled the royal courts of Asia?

Pekingese

Bred to resemble the guardian lions of Chinese temples, the Pekingese was reserved for the imperial household, and the smallest were carried in the sleeves of court robes as "sleeve dogs." Their history also carries a darker chapter: one Pekingese, pointedly named Looty, was taken from the Old Summer Palace near Beijing in 1860, during the sacking of the palace in the Second Opium War, and presented to Queen Victoria — a small dog swept up in a much larger act of imperial plunder.

Shih Tzu

The name means "little lion," and the breed lived as royalty throughout China's Ming dynasty, prized by the court and guarded so jealously that the imperial household resisted giving any away. In the nineteenth century, the Dowager Empress Cixi ran her own celebrated Shih Tzu breeding programme, cementing the breed's place at the heart of the palace.

Japanese Chin

Of Chinese origin, the Chin became the darling of the Japanese imperial court, where — by tradition — commoners were forbidden to own one and the little dogs were treated as aristocrats in their own right. In the nineteenth century, specimens were gifted to Queen Victoria, carrying their courtly status west to Europe.

Which breeds were prized by European and Russian nobility?

Pug

The pug is the official dog of the Dutch House of Orange, thanks to a piece of history-cum-legend: in 1572, a pug named Pompey is said to have saved Prince William the Silent by raising the alarm before a night attack. Two centuries later, Napoleon's future wife Joséphine reportedly used her pug, Fortune, to smuggle notes past her prison guards.

Papillon

This butterfly-eared toy spaniel was a fixture of the French court. King Henry III doted on the breed, and both Madame de Pompadour and Marie Antoinette owned them; legend has it Marie Antoinette carried her little dog with her even in her final days. Papillons appear tucked into the laps of nobility in Old Master paintings by the likes of Rubens and Van Dyck.

Borzoi

The borzoi, or Russian wolfhound, was the pride of the Russian aristocracy. Bred for elaborate, ritualised wolf hunts, the dogs could not be bought — only received as a gift from the Tsar. That exclusivity made them a living emblem of nobility, until the breed collapsed in Russia after the 1917 Revolution swept the aristocracy away.

Which royal dog is the most ancient?

Saluki

Among the oldest of all domesticated breeds, the graceful Saluki was the coursing hound of ancient Egypt, kept by pharaohs to run down gazelle across the desert.

"The Saluki was so esteemed in ancient Egypt that its body was sometimes mummified, like a pharaoh's, and entombed alongside its owner." — Encyclopaedia Britannica

Called the "royal dog of Egypt" and depicted on tomb walls thousands of years old, the Saluki was never sold, only given — a dog you could receive from a friend or a king, but never simply buy.

Why did royalty commission portraits of their dogs?

Across every one of these courts, one habit repeats: royalty had their dogs painted. A place in the family portrait was proof a dog had truly arrived, and grand painterly likenesses of pampered hounds hang in palaces and galleries across Europe. If you would like to read more about that tradition, our history of renaissance dog paintings traces how dogs earned their spot on the wall.

You do not need a throne to give your own dog the regal treatment. A royal renaissance pet portrait captures your dog in the grand, old-court painterly style — human-reviewed and made from your favourite photo. For more ways to honour a special dog, our pet portrait gift guide walks through the options.

FAQs

What was Queen Elizabeth II's favourite dog breed? The Pembroke Welsh Corgi, without question. She owned more than 30 over her lifetime, all descended from Susan, a gift on her eighteenth birthday in 1944. She also kept dorgis (dachshund-corgi crosses) and cocker spaniels, but the corgi remained her lifelong signature breed.

Is the King Charles Spaniel actually royal? Yes, in the sense that it is named after King Charles II, a devoted owner in the seventeenth century, and toy spaniels were long favoured by English royalty. The popular claim that a law lets the breed enter any building has been confirmed as a myth by Parliament, but the royal association itself is genuine.

Which royal dog breed is the oldest? The Saluki is among the most ancient domesticated breeds, kept by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and depicted in tombs dating back thousands of years. It was so revered that individual Salukis were sometimes mummified and buried with their owners.

Why are corgis a vulnerable breed if they are so famous? Fame did not guarantee numbers. Pembroke corgi registrations fell below 300 in 2014, placing the breed on the Kennel Club's vulnerable native breeds list, partly due to a UK tail-docking ban and fewer active breeders. Interest rebounded strongly around the 2022 Platinum Jubilee.

Give your own dog the royal treatment

Royalty put their dogs on the wall because a great portrait says this one mattered. Your dog qualifies. A royal-style portrait, human-reviewed and printed as premium ready-to-hang framed artwork from your favourite photo, gives an ordinary companion a distinctly regal place in the home. For transparency, SnoutCraft uses a technology-assisted, artist-guided workflow with human review. It is not an original painting by a commissioned artist.