KEN Dodkins waited nearly 20 years to welcome a new dog into his heart - and now can't imagine life without his Dalmatian, Marley.
"He's my life, he's my world, he really is," said Mr Dodkins, of Macquarie Hills.
"There's nothing I wouldn't do for him."
Mr Dodkins said he and his partner Leanne Hill - who both work in disability support - welcomed Marley into their family in mid 2021, when he was four months old.
Mr Dodkins had lost his beloved cattle dog Missy in 2003 and Ms Hill had lost her Labrador Brutus in 2019.
"I said 'I can't go through that again, I get too attached'," he said.
"She was ready and I wasn't, but now we both are... I guess it was just time to have a fur baby.
"He's brought us unconditional love.
"I suppose there was a gap in my life where I hadn't had a dog for a long time and I didn't know the hole was there until he came along - and now I couldn't be without him."
He said Ms Hill originally wanted to foster a greyhound and didn't speak to him for three weeks when he disagreed. They came across Marley in Warners Bay.
"He's very vocal, he'll tell you what he wants, he's very affectionate and will give you cuddles and all that sort of stuff. He's part of the family."
The Hunter's canine population has exploded since early 2020, with another 37,940 registered dogs calling the region home since the pandemic began.
A Newcastle Herald data analysis of Office of Local Government figures shows Lake Macquarie led the way, accounting for more than a quarter of that puppy population growth on its own.
Compared to March 2020, Newcastle is home to 6258 more dogs than before COVID-19.
It pales in comparison to Lake Macquarie, where another 10,641 registrations pushed its already high number of dogs even further ahead of its neighbours.
Lake Macquarie has the state's second highest dog population, according to the most recent figures, with almost 100,000 dogs as of September last year.
Only the Central Coast has more, with over 150,000 dogs at last count, while Sydney's Blacktown stands a close third.
No Hunter local government area failed to record a net population rise of more than 1000 dogs since the pandemic began.
Maitland (5982), Cessnock (5432) and Port Stephens (4203) recorded the next highest rises ahead of Upper Hunter (1599), Singleton (1587), Muswellbrook (1212) and Dungog (1026).
Maitland and Dungog's dog populations grew by the highest percentage, both more than 15 per cent larger than they were in 2020.
The growth has been replicated across the country. An Animal Medicines Australia survey published last November said the country's pet population had stabilised "after the pandemic pet boom" at an estimated 28.7 million animals.
It said 6.9 million or 69 per cent of all households had a pet, significantly higher than the consistent 61 per cent recorded in 2016 and 2019.
It said dogs and cats had led the sustained growth in pet ownership.
Dogs are the most popular pet, with 48 per cent of all households having at least one dog, up from 40 per cent in 2019.
"Many new pet owners said they had long been thinking of adding a pet to their household - and the pandemic had simply given them the time and opportunity to be home to 'on board' the pet they've wanted," it said.
The Australian Veterinary Association's Dr Cristy Secombe said dog ownership was an "integral part of the human- animal bond and plays an important and positive role in the health and wellbeing of the community".
"With ownership comes responsibility and it is essential the lifelong physical, social and welfare requirements of the dog are considered when people are considering pet ownership," she said.
"Your local veterinarian is able to provide specific advice as to the needs of specific breeds of dogs to provide them with a high quality of life."
Macquarie Vetz Animal Centre senior veterinary nurse Bec Manthorp said the number of dogs on the books at the Warners Bay practice had increased by about 20 per cent in recent years.
"It's more puppies, but there has been an increase in clients moving to the area as well, quite a few people with established animals who are moving into Lake Macquarie from other areas," Ms Manthorp said.
She said the three breeds most represented among its newer clients were cavoodles and "anything that ends in oodle", dachshunds and French bulldogs.
Ms Manthorp said there had been a recent increase in owners concerned their dogs had separation anxiety.
"When [dogs] were first bought their family was home 24/7 or certainly a lot of the time and that's now changed as people have gone back to work and they're no longer in that routine of having people at home with them constantly," she said.
"We generally would start with referring them to a behavioural trainer to work with them and then depending on the level of severity there's also behavioural medications we may try in conjunction with seeking help from a trainer... it's still going on now, there probably was more of an increase initially, but we're still certainly seeing them.
"Maybe over time the owners have realised it really is a problem for them, maybe at first they thought 'Okay we'll get used to it once we get back into that routine' but it's continued to be an issue."
She said there used to be quiet periods, including January, but this hadn't been the case for the past few years - even with the addition of two new vets, one just before the pandemic and one since.
"We're busy constantly," she said.
Normally it was fairly quick for a client to book in a surgery with us, they'd get in within a two week timeframe, we're now booking surgeries potentially a month or more in advance."
Sonja O'Connor of Toronto brought home "cuddly", "smart and obedient" red border collie Tilly in 2020.
"We'd been looking for a dog for a while and my cousin had a litter of 10 - she was the sickest out of the litter," she said.
"I couldn't live without her now, she gets me out and about and with working from home is a brilliant workmate.
"I take more photos of her than I do of my daughter.
"She was never going to be an on the bed type of dog- well guess who is now on the bed?"
