My mum wants a cockapoo

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Dexter

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I'm cringing at the thought of this, but she appears to have set her heart on it, and wont listen to my squeaks out outrage about them being effectively mongrels. She keeps popping to the Dogs Trust, so I'm hoping something there catches her eye. Is there anything I could tell her that will put her off? Shes just lost her mad as a box of frogs, collie x dog to cancer and things are a bit raw. She understandly wants something different.

Anyway, if I cant talk her out of it, whats the pitfalls? what health checks should they have? Should she look for an F1 or does it make no odds?
 
Even if it's an F1 hybrid, it could look like nothing like either parent. Some cross breeders are testing and there should be litters that are available with the relevant health screening, but it's tricky as the two breeds don't have the same health test requirements. I dont see, though, that a cocker/poodle cross is any worse (or better) than any other cross. The popular crosses are commanding more cash, unfortunately, with the crazy names.

Trouble is, been there, done that with the rushing out after the death of a pet and grabbed the nearest available pup and it's too easy to buy from some byb who cares for nothing but the money.

Perhaps see if you can steer her towards rescuing and point out the Many Tears website? There are always loads of gorgeous pups on there.
 
Tell her my work colleagues one ate the sofa and chewed through a pair of Uggs!!!!!!

It has now started on the chairs in the dining room.......its only 10months old. And she said it yaps all day long......:)
 
We have a cockapoo and they are brilliant!!
She is really affectionate and cuddly and always jumps on you for hugs :) But has loooooads of energy, my sister takes her to agility (which she is amazing at!) to try and expel some and get her using her brain a bit.
The only downfall is because she is non shedding, she needs clipping every 6 weeks or so and it is hard finding someone who knows how to do the "teddy bear clip".

Ours is black and is the cheapest of the lot. If you want a "teddy bear" cream one your looking at about £800. :/
Her around a month old:
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No offence to you Rowy, your dog looks like a sweet girl, but I would not pay that amount of money for a crossbred dog! I think I said that to you when you first got her though, for the OP's mum to pay that sort of money would be outrageous.

Good pedigree dogs with working titled/show winning/health tested parents, grand parents/great grandparents are being sold for less than that - and they make equally good pets!

I would second Many Tears or another good rescue.
 
She didnt cost 800 pounds. The cream ones do as they are most sought after. The brown ones cost 600-700 and she cost 500- 600 but you can get cheaper ones but we wanted one with parents health checked and not puppy farmed etc.
We also have a 8 month pure bred labrador puppy. Her dad won at crufts and her mum has won countless prizes. They have both been health checked yet our poor puppy has an absolutely AWFUL parrot mouth. Her bottom jaw is a good inch further back than her front jaw and we worry about future problems. When we first got her not knowing this we were so looking forward to possibly breeding her/ showing her but not thats a definate no!
In comparison our cockapoo has absolutely no heath problems.
 
No offence but that is still very expensive for a cross breed but I am glad they are health checked (I take it that means hip and elbow scored and eye tested? I don't just mean a look-over by the vet :))

Sorry to hear about your lab's problems, hope you informed the breeder?
Most good breeders will give you a part refund/swap (although I am sure you are too attached to her now) if she was bought specifically to show and has a disqualifying fault which means she cannot. Lots of dogs win at Crufts, it's a dog show, albeit a very big one, it shouldn't be a massive selling point to sell pups.
My older dog is overshot and it causes him no problems whatsoever. And he was still a lot cheaper than a cockapoo :p
 
I am currently looking a well bred and health tested rottweilers (only LOOKING may I add CC, Cayla, MM :) ) and I can get one for £650 most being around the £550 mark!!!!


My friend got a Bernese cheaper because he had an overshot jaw the breeder said if she could she would sell him with a neutering voucher to make sure he was never bred from (this was 15years ago). They got him neutered at 18months old just to add.
 
whoops are lab is actually 6 months old (accidently adding months to her life lol i cant count) and our cockapoo cost £500.
To be honest I do agree that is expensive for a cross bred but I suppose the only reason they are that high is because they are high in demand and people are willing to pay that much. I would pay that again for one though because by having a cocker spaniel x poodle you get the cuddlyness of a poodle (right now she is cuddled up on my mums lap sleeping) and the energy, excitableness of a cocker spaniel.
Yes we did inform the breeder but she said that labrador jaws mature late but surely, now she has her adult teeth, it would have grown by now? She has got excellent conformation for a labrador and many people have told us she would have made a really good show dog if not for her jaw. We dont really care now though because we love her but just dont want her to be in pain when shes older :/
 
I am sure she will be fine :)
Poodles can be quite energetic too :) exceptions and rules and all that and it sounds like you have a great girl but the problem with crosses is that you rarely get a 50-50% split, best of both worlds type dog, even in purebreeds, my dogs have often had some of the worst attributes of each parent :p
 
There are two cockapoos - in the USA they are American cocker x poodle & in the UK cocker x poodle.
Both are mutts and neither adds any good points over the parent breeds. These breeds share common health problems so crosses are more likely to have problems than well bred pure breds. Most people don't want the "energy, excitableness of a cocker spaniel".

Value - whatever a mug will pay.
Shame about the parrot mouth but not common in Labs - have you gone back to the breeder since the adult teeth came in? The last cocker x poodle i groomed had an overshot mouth, slipping patellas and was blind.

Dexter -try asking your Mum what she doesn't like about poodles and cocker spaniels and then ask what she would do if her expensive mutt grows up with all the traits she doesn't want?

It is about time that people buying these mutts were publicly derided as idiots to stop the puppy farmers producing them.
What would you think if she announced she wanted to buy a car that was half Ford half Volvo because it would have the best of both? QED.
 
rowy said:
I would pay that again for one though because by having a cocker spaniel x poodle you get the cuddlyness of a poodle (right now she is cuddled up on my mums lap sleeping) and the energy, excitableness of a cocker spaniel.
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But that is where people buying these dogs are finding out the bulls***t from the breeders is just that. If you get another, you might find that it sheds like a cocker and it is nothing like either parent. Even with an F1, you are not guaranteed the character or conformation. This is what hacks me off about the current mad trend for crosses: they could turn out with all the best or all the worst traits of both breeds.
 
cinammontoast said:
But that is where people buying these dogs are finding out the bulls***t from the breeders is just that. If you get another, you might find that it sheds like a cocker and it is nothing like either parent. Even with an F1, you are not guaranteed the character or conformation. This is what hacks me off about the current mad trend for crosses: they could turn out with all the best or all the worst traits of both breeds.
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hmm maybe we were just lucky with ours then....
 
Most responsible breeders of pedigree dogs breed to improve the breed, this cannot be the case with these mixed breeds it ultimately is about the money and how much they can extract from gullible buyers.

More and more are starting to show up in rescue and this will only increase, what will the breeders response be when the demand drops? it certainly wont be to stop breeding but to look for the next big thing.

Our Lancashire Heeler pup classed as a vunerable breed by th Kennel Club was health checked and microchipped and still only cost £550.
 
Funny thing is though - how is it when you go on all these rescue sites which I have been trawling recently - their full of Staffys, Collies, Labs, Rotties & all other kinds of pure bred dogs. I haven't seen one "Labradoodle" or "Cockerpoo" or "Sprocker" on any of them!

Just because their pedigree doesn't mean their bound to be from "well bred from responsible breeders". If they were all that responsible, why is there so many in rescues supply over demand.

Also doesn't mean all cross breeds are bred by "puppy farms".

Take your blinkers off. Supply, demand. Simple. Look at the rescues.
 
I've been trawling rescues looking for one. She would happily take a rescue. There arent any, well I've not come across a single one.
 
I see plenty of fashionable crossbred types in rescue, but they are labelled as 'spaniel cross' etc, no made-up names.

Also, bear in mind that a lot of people now sell these dogs on for cash on sites like Dumbtree.
Also the age factor - chucking out usually occurs between the 6-24 months bracket when the cute fluffy puppies start acting like adolescent dogs. There will be more given up, like there will be in many other breeds.

Obviously pedigree does not = responsible, I can't see where anyone said that? - almost all the pedigrees in rescues are poorly bred specimens from irresponsible breeders and puppy farms - responsible breeders on the whole are good at spotting fly-by-night buyers and will take back pups from their own breeding. Responsible breeders in my own breed tattoo and microchip all their pups so they are always traceable.

Craply bred pedigrees are just as bad as craply bred crossbreeds.

But with responsibly bred pedigrees, you have a better idea of what you are getting IMO.
 
We trawled rescues too as we wanted to give a dog a good home, but not one at all! Just hundreds of "responsibly bred pedigrees". Good luck finding what you want & hope you're mum is happy whatever she chooses. Brilliant article in Dogs Today mag at the mo about crossbreed haters, worth a read.

Best of luck anyway!
 
Jeez, I am not a crossbred hater. Just don't charge £££ unless both of the parents have every single set of health tests (not vet checks) available for that breed with good results, the breeds complement each other and have a bit of functionality about them, not just for cash and cash alone. Seriously, I can look at ten GSD rescue websites right now and just looking at them, not one of the dogs in there, lovely though they are, would come from any type of breeder that I would buy a puppy from.
 
Responsible breeders take back dogs and pure breds also have breed rescues to fall back on.
Many purebreds come from puppy farms who choose what to breed by one criteria -will it sell.

Most rescues are full of staffie types and big (often black) dogs but the designer mixes are there - without the designer names. Cross breeds outnumber pedigrees even on the ones that don't release dogs to breed rescue.
A lot of space on the free ad sites is taken up by irresponsibly bred dogs.
 
rowy said:
Yes we did inform the breeder but she said that labrador jaws mature late but surely, now she has her adult teeth, it would have grown by now?
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My boy has a very slightly over shot jaw (more like ontop of each other). 1 st noticed when he was 5 months. Spoke to his breeder and she said that the skull is the final part of the body to stop growing. Checked with my vet to make sure it wasn't gonna cause any problems and he said it wouldn't and that the breeder was correct.

So your pups jaw may resolve itself. Mines didn't which also meant I couldn't show him. Although I was never set on it anyway!
 
I do not like these fashionable designer type dogs which are bred to make money but am not against cross breeding for working dogs. On a another thread a friend of a friend has a Weirm x Ridgeback which is a great worker and all the puppies were sold before they were born.
 
There is a FAB GSD x Mali at club (hadn't a clue there was Malinois in him, he just looks like a fine build shepherd) his parents had all relevant tests, very good dogs behind him from both breeds, super working dog.
 
Our newest hands in

A japanese chin
A yorki x border terrier
A j.r.t x shih tzu

3 labradors, LittleMissLauren now has one:D and one goes on saturday:)

I would tell you mother that the breeder is and can only be breeding for profit and basically making it by giving a stupid ditzy name, I will not name any of the above any other than X breed;) well obs not the chin:p
I would advise your mother not to encourage irresponsible breeding and either go for a rescue (where the sockets of her eyes will still be left intact for a similar dog);) or a well bred pedigree with health tests.
I am not against X breeds (I have enough) but this ridiculous designer breeding is just a huge money making scam.
 
He is tiny, 3kg:eek: I will def get a pic tomorrow, he is at my mams now, but when she dropped a lab here today I spied him in her van. I will ask why he came in too.
 
elliecjno1 said:
Funny thing is though - how is it when you go on all these rescue sites which I have been trawling recently - their full of Staffys, Collies, Labs, Rotties & all other kinds of pure bred dogs. I haven't seen one "Labradoodle" or "Cockerpoo" or "Sprocker" on any of them!

Just because their pedigree doesn't mean their bound to be from "well bred from responsible breeders". If they were all that responsible, why is there so many in rescues supply over demand.

Also doesn't mean all cross breeds are bred by "puppy farms".

Take your blinkers off. Supply, demand. Simple. Look at the rescues.
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Agree 100%
 
Completely agree with Cayla.

I personally have met a few in training classes. Remember one women in particular with one. She was going around boasting to members how her "mini cockerpoo" was perfect, non shedding, cocker spaniel temperament with a poodle coat. Well that was the first class anyway ;) quickly it became apparent that the 'perfect' apricot/cream "mini cockerpoo" was a shedding nutcase! That at 3months old dwarfed Pixel who was 6months old at the time (show cocker) it turns out that it had thrown back to a standard poodle.

I dont disagree with cross breeds, I know a few very nice ones. Its the excess breeding without the health checks (though yes, some are responsible in that sense) it's the ridiculous amounts of money because you've put poo on the end and it looks cute. At the end of the day some of these breeds really do not complement each other and I believe the prospective buyers are often mislead.

Some would say I should prefer them as my pure bred pedigree cocker spaniel is almost blind, but at the end of the day her condition is a mutation and could have just as easily happened to a cross breed.

Anyway those are my musings for this morning :)

Xx
 
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