Not pettish so much as animal loving (5)
I believe the answer is:
doggy
'not pettish so much' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'animal loving' is the wordplay.
'animal' becomes 'dog' (type of animal).
'loving' becomes 'gy' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'dog'+'gy'='DOGGY'
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for doggy that I've seen is " Like canine animals".)