When his neighbour's dog jumped the fence, Luke Milbourne had no idea it would be him defending his pet in court.

He was away from his Frankston home when his bulldog Skye first fought the neighbour's dog, which jumped the fence into the Milbournes' property.

"We found [Skye] with multiple puncture wounds and stuff on her body," Mr Milbourne said.

"We were like, 'Well, you need to go to the vet; what have you done?'"

After speaking to his neighbours, he thought the matter was settled.

A month later, Skye saw the same dog being walked and she reacted aggressively.

She smashed through the Milbournes' lounge room window to challenge the other dog, lacerating her head on broken glass and injuring the neighbour's dog as they fought on the street.

"The teenage girl who was walking the dog also suffered some sprains trying to restrain her dog," Mr Milbourne said.

A month after that, Mr Milbourne was in court.

He said he received multiple infringements and accepted responsibility for the dog fight.

"I did an interview with the council and apologised," he said.

"I paid for the bills for the other dog because they had to go to the vet as well. I'm on a good behaviour bond to make sure that [Skye] doesn't do anything bad again for a year."

One in five dogs attacked

Mr Milbourne's experience is far from unique.

Last month, Victoria's first state-delivered Pet Census revealed 21 per cent of dogs had been attacked by another dog and required veterinary treatment. 

He was also one of many owners to have their dog escape.

Phoenix Animal Rescue director Carolyn Stow said she had seen a spike in dogs roaming the streets in the past six months, including in pairs and groups.

"Some of the dogs are microchipped, some aren't. I'm not sure why it's happening," she said.

"It leads to risks of the dog getting hit and injured by vehicles, but also harassment of people walking or other dogs on lead that could potentially lead to issues and injuries."

Ms Stow said she had recently intervened after seeing unsupervised dogs harass a woman walking her dog in Horsham.

"It could've easily led to an attack in that situation. The dogs were quite ramped up trying to get to that dog," she said.

In Ararat, Natasha Hughes said she also feared for small children, describing her two-year-old daughter's narrow escape from an unrestrained dog late last year. 

"As we were crossing the road, it tried to grab my daughter's leg. It was ready to attack us [and only stopped] because my partner challenged it."

Ms Hughes said she had witnessed a sharp increase in roaming dogs around Ararat.

"In the past 12 months, there have been a lot more dogs out; more big dogs than little ones from kelpies to hunting dogs," she said.

"Some of them might have a collar with a bit of rope, so they've obviously broken out. Sometimes they don't have anything or there are multiple dogs." 

Pandemic pet boom

Last month, the Victorian Pet Census revealed 53 per cent of pets had been acquired in the past three years.

It also showed nearly one in four dog owners did not consider meeting legal ownership requirements to be of high importance. 

"Awareness, understanding and perceived importance of the legal requirements around pet ownership was fairly low compared to other aspects of pet ownership," the report read.

The report found that while 91 per cent of cat owners felt it was important for them to meet legal responsibilities, that perceived importance was much lower among dog owners, at 77 per cent.

"Pet owners were generally more likely to be aware of laws relevant to the personal keeping of pets (such as limits on the number and type of animals you can keep on your property) than laws relevant to the broader pet industry (such as requirements around breeding)," it said.