Chris Pine's love for his animals is "profound and heart-opening"

He told People about how he finds dogs an inspiration: "It's myriad, small little things throughout the day, where they make you smile because they do something ridiculous.

"The love that you have with your animals is profound and heart-opening.

"Then, the practice of that heart opening over time - I can't help but think that it bleeds into your life elsewhere.

"It just makes you more capable of loving, I think. My dogs have continued to teach me a lot."

Chris first became a pet owner when he was a young child growing up with his father - fellow actor Robert Pine - and his mother Gwynne Gilford.

He added: "When I was seven, my parents took me to adopt a dog, and so we got Lucy.

"She was a small dog, and I had her from when I was seven until I was (in my 20s.)"

Chris said about being left heartbroken by Lucy's death: "I was studying abroad that year, and I remember my parents calling me and telling me my dog had died, and it was shattering.

"Then I went 15 years without a dog. I was traveling a lot, working and starting my career, but then I got Wednesday, and really, it's no hyperbole to say how that she's taught me everything about love and patience and kindness.

"She's just changed my life.

"I was like, 'Why did I waste so much time (without a dog?)"

Chris also thinks being a dog owner will prepare him to become a parent, saying: "There's so much mutual learning in some regard. It's like, you have to teach a dog how to live in a house and how to teach a dog to be potty-trained, and you have to teach a dog what they can and can't do.

"You're also learning about patience.

"If they rip up a couch, how do you deal with that and how do you treat them with kindness instead of anger?"