A DOG has been responsible for giving the first senior member of the Royal Family in recent history a criminal record.

Dogs, which have always had an important role in royal life, have not been without problems. A decade ago the Queen had to call in Roger Mugford, the Surrey-based dog psychologist who spoke up for Dotty yesterday, when her corgis started fighting among themselves and biting their owner, not to mention the ankles of unwary footmen.

The last straw was when Ranger, a corgi belonging to the Queen Mother, killed Chipper, one of the Queen’s corgis — a cross between a corgi and a dachshund. Dr Mugford said that the corgis could be difficult because, handled by so many people, they could not get used to one owner. He prescribed a rape alarm to break up fights.

Three years ago it was reported that a royal footman had been demoted after adding whisky and gin to the dogs’ food for the amusement of watching them stagger around drunk. The antics were allegedly discovered when a postmortem examination on a corgi found traces of alcohol in its bloodstream.

The royal corgis are still suspected of scrapping. During her recent visit to Canada the Queen asked members of the Manitoba Corgi Association in Winnipeg: “Are there any fights?” The Prince of Wales has suffered from his dogs. He was reportedly heartbroken when Tigger, his 18-year-old Jack Russell, had to be put down in March owing to old age.

The Princess Royal herself stirred a previous canine controversy in 1992 when she suggested to the British Veterinary Association’s annual conference that she could not understand why they were so uptight over the practice of docking working dogs’ tails. “If you have met a dog that has damaged its tail you will know how difficult it is to treat,” she bluntly told the vets.

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