More than 100,000 Irish homes added a dog to the family during the pandemic, according to a new survey.
The Ipsos MRBI study suggests the country's dog population now exceeds 1 million.
It also found almost half of households with kids have a dog, but just 3 in 10 over 65s have a four legged friend at home.
Managing Director of Ipsos MRBI, Damien Loscher, says the survey also revealed the most popular puppy names over the past year.
"The number one most popular name for a new Covid puppy was Bailey.
"We had a close second with Max and Bobby and Coco - they were three very popular names.
"And we know we had one Simpsons fan in our survey, we had one dog named Homer.
"Obviously calling their dog Santa's Little Helper was too much of a mouthful!
