Stewart also advocated for more personal things in Star Trek: Picard, such as the fact that Jean-Luc would have a pet pit bull.
Little stuff like this had to impact how Stewart felt about the process and probably only further helped him come to love the fact he did not shut the door on playing Picard for good.
The plot point wasn’t a callback to the Captain’s love of the breed, but it was important to Stewart who had advocated for the rights of the breed for a chunk of his career.