Australia’s most popular dog breeds shift as housing shrinks

Smaller dogs are becoming increasingly popular across Australia as cost of living pressures push more people into smaller homes, with Cavoodles reigning surpreme as the country’s most popular four-legged friend.

Another smaller dog with a high place on the list of most popular dog breeds was the French Bulldog, which ranked second in the country, according to Ray White analysis of recent Pet Insurance Australia data.

Australia’s most popular dogs in previous years had been mostly medium-to-large animals such as Labradors and Golden Retrievers, which remain a popular choice, slipping to eighth and third place, respectively.

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Another popular breed of smaller dog, placed sixth on the list, was the miniature dachshund.

Groodles – a medium sized dog and cross between poodles and golden retrivers – were the fifth most popular dog breed in Australia over 2024 to 2025.

Ray White senior data analyst Atom Go Tian said housing choices were impacting the popularity of breeds.

“There’s the personality aspect and then of course it’s the size and maintenance aspect that is very suitable for apartment living and urban living,” he said, adding that the influence of housing size was especially noteworthy in NSW.

He said parts of inner city were “pretty dense with people and the sizes of the houses and apartments are not as big”.

“Whereas if you move to Northern Territory or even Queensland, the houses are much bigger and you will have bigger dogs to go with those houses,” he said.

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Major changes to NSW regulations in May 2025 included allowing tenants to keep pets in a rental property, with the landlord’s consent.

“From a policy perspective it should be more lenient. I think it was in 2021 they removed the blanket ban for dogs, so for now if someone with dogs is looking for an apartment there is the option to apply to the landlord,” Mr Go Tian said.

“But definitely I think NSW is one of the more conservative (states). I would say, Victoria, ACT and Queensland are generally the more progressive states.

“The policy and execution of the policy – it’s possible there’s a gap between those things.”

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The Rent Fairy director Sarah Elkordi said she thinks there was a grey area around pets and approvals.

“I think whilst it’s great that we’ve been given information on the changes that landlords can’t decline pets without giving a reason, I do still think landlords are choosing applications

without pets and sometimes that’s why we see properties sitting a little bit longer on market,” she said.

Ms Elkordi said there are still many struggling despite the May reform.

“I don’t think it’s changed to be honest with you,” she said. “At the end of the day it is landlord’s choice who they put in the property – the landlords that don’t want pets, aren’t going to switch up just because the law says that they have to accept pets, that’s just the reality of it unfortunately.

“So people are still struggling to secure properties, especially if they have two or more pets in one property.”

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Ms Elkordi offered a tip of constructing a pet resume to assist with the process, including references such as previous landlords, groomers and neighbours.

“It gives them a breakdown of how old your animal is and what it does all day,” she said.

Campbelltown resident Casey Munro had been renting for three years while his dog, a Border Collie named Elsie, lived with his mother.

Following the May NSW reform, he made an application which was turned down when he asked for permission to have Elsie move in with him.

Mr Munro said the property manager declined the application on the basis it was highly probable the border collie would cause more damage than his $1,300 bond.

Mr Munro applied to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to challenge the decision.

“As soon as I got that rejection, I just went straight to the NCAT’s website and made the application, within a few days I had a listing for that to be heard,” he said.

“I would say it was really quite straightforward and took just a bit over a month to get sorted after the first hearing, when they actually set a trial to happen and it was quite straightforward in giving evidence on the dog breed and her behaviour.”

In early July, Mr Munro received the orders from the Tribunal granting him permission to keep Elsie in his rental property, he said having this legislation is incredibly important to help renters.

“At the end of the day these are our homes, they shouldn’t just be seen as an investment,” he said.

“We’re not here to clean and caretake for a house to make it consistently a showroom house that has just been built.

“We’ve always been allowed to have children in them, they’ve never been allowed to say no to that, but for some reason pets was where they were drawing the line.

“These regulations are super important to make sure that we can feel like we are actually living in our own homes and not caring for someone else’s property.”

Mr Munro said having Elsie has positively impacted his daily lifestyle.

“Just being able to walk her every day and having such a goofy, friendly face to wake up to and make sure I actually get up and do things, it’s a huge impact,” he said.

Tenants’ Union of NSW Acting Policy and Advocacy Manager Eloise Parrab said the reform was something the Union had been calling for in NSW for a long time.

“It’s something that the Tenants Union has been pushing for, for a long time,” she said.

“Pet ownership in Australia I think is among some of the highest in the world and a lot of the research shows that keeping pets can obviously significantly improve people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.”

Ms Parrab said there were, however, additional reforms that they would have liked to see implemented in May.

“We still know that if you put in an application for a property and you put on that application that you have a pet, then there’s a real risk that your application is going to go to the bottom of the pile,” she said.

“There is a bill though that is before NSW parliament which will potentially, if it’s passed, provide the ability for a renter to apply for a property, move in and then there will be a period of time in which they have to put in the request to keep a pet.

“That will assist those renters that already have a pet at the time they are applying and are obviously concerned about disclosing it.”

Ms Parrab said The Residential Tenancies Amendment Protection of Personal Information bill was introduced to the NSW Parliament in June and when parliament returns in September this will potentially be debated in the Legislative Assembly.

The bill includes changes such as a standardised application form that agents and landlords have to use, better protection of renters personal information as well as further amendment to the pet provisions.

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