A corgi named Daphne, standing just 25cm from paw to shoulder, has been named Britain's most unlikely sheepdog. The seven-year-old has spent the past five years helping to herd a flock of 1,200 sheep at a farm in South Lakes, Cumbria, gaining international social media fame and challenging the notion that size matters when it comes to working the land.

Daphne stays behind the flock and barks on command to keep the sheep moving in the right direction, assisting during the busy spring lambing season as well as with summer grazing moves and the annual shearing. Her owner, Heather Hodgson, 33, said corgis are unfairly stereotyped as lazy lapdogs because of their association with the late Queen Elizabeth II, insisting the breed is in fact high-energy, intelligent and full of character. She described Daphne as calm most of the time but hugely excited when driving sheep.