More than 130 dogs rehomed in Nottinghamshire in the last year by RSPCA

And in Nottinghamshire alone, 131 dogs were re-homed in 2020, according to the latest figures from the RSPCA.

Nationally, the number was 4,877 dogs rehomed across the UK in the same time period.

Dr Samantha Gaines, RSPCA dog welfare expert said: “At the beginning of lockdown we were concerned about how difficult it might be to rehome animals, especially as we had to pause all rehoming for several weeks until we were able to come up with a new rehoming model that adhered to the Government’s guidelines.

“Once we had approval from Defra to re-launch rehoming, we were staggered by the levels of interest we had in our animals; particularly our dogs.

"We saw an unprecedented level of interest in rehoming dogs from families who were spending more time at home and wanted the company of a furry friend.

“We had 68 per cent more visits to the Find A Pet section of our website between March 23 – the first day of lockdown – and December 31 compared to the previous year.

"And views of our ‘rehoming a dog’ information spiked by 87 per cent.”

The charity launched virtual rehoming in order to continue rehoming animals while still sticking to the Government’s restrictions on social distancing and non-essential travel.

People were encouraged to apply for pets online and staff arranged video call interviews and to match the right dogs with the right people.