The unstoppable rise of the cockapoo – the designer dog that’s dividing Britain

If you’ve ever been in a park on a Saturday morning, you’ll have seen them. Among the Labradors, terriers and pugs you spot one smallish, fluffy, teddy-bear-looking dog, then another, and another, like you are watching a particularly canine form of cell division. Some are average-sized, some are tiny, and all are absolutely humming with energy. These are the cockapoos – the designer breed that is now the most popular crossbreed and second most popular dog in Britain, according to the latest VetCompass data. First developed in the US in the 1960s as a cross between spaniels and poodles, they gained popularity in the UK 10 to 15 years ago thanks to their reputation for being easy to train, hypoallergenic, sociable, and good with families. “Cockapoos are all things to all people,” says Dan O’Neill, a professor of companion animal epidemiology at Royal Veterinary College (RVC) who has worked on several studies about the prevalence of this breed. “It’s got good innate health, it’s a good size, it’s adorable and it’s easy to breed. Whether you’re male, female, young, old, breeder or owner, it’s the perfect utilitarian dog that’s triggering what humans want socially right now.” Their popularity skyrocketed during the pandemic: their price rising by 168 per cent between 2019 and 2020. By 2022, they were among the most expensive dog varieties in the UK, costing an average of £1,336.15. But there is a backlash brewing against these excitable balls of fur. Despite their widespread popularity, the Royal Kennel Club currently refuses to recognise the cockapoo as an official breed. One vet even described being subject to boos when talking about cockapoos at a conference. Over email, the Cocker Spaniel Club, when asked about cockapoos, said they were “not able to comment on the breeding of cross breeds/mongrels” (O’Neill describes the use of mongrel as “derogatory”). Shorts Many owners have bitten off more than they can chew My wife and I are among the many fans of the crossbreed. Our three-year-old dog, Mona, is a cockapoo, and like every other pet owner, I think our dog is the greatest creature that’s ever lived. But I have become acutely aware that more and more people have problems with cockapoos, both as owners and general members of the public. More than once, people have told me about a cockapoo they know who has come to ruin their friend or family member’s life because of the dog’s anxiety or inability to trust them around children. (Of all of the mixed-breed dogs, cockapoos scored much higher for levels of undesirable behaviour like resource guarding or separation anxiety than labradoodles, cavapoos, or their purebred parents, according to a study from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), published this year.) Rather than the easy, cuddly dog of its reputation, people online are lamenting that “cockapoos are awful family pets”, and “cockerpoos [sic] are the bane of my life”. Mona is not a typical cockapoo: her parents and her siblings have that distinctive teddy bear cuddliness, but her coat is flat and silky with bursts of fluff along the legs, making the “poo” part of her imperceptible to most. She is, however, absolutely full of energy: while very calm at home, she has been known to be territorial when other dogs come near her ball. She can also be very bossy: she’ll bark at me to throw the stick again (and again, and again). Then there’s the mess. We’d naively assumed that she would somehow be low-shed before we brought her home: she is not. I am constantly vacuuming, finding hairballs and fighting to undo matting behind her ears.Keeping up with their energy levels is a full-time job. Other cockapoo owners have told me, “It seems almost impossible to give them all the stimulation they seem to need,” Aggression is another common problem. One owner describes how their adopted cockapoo will snap at their other dog. “The biggest concern is that we also found out that my wife is pregnant,” he says. “I’m scared that if we don’t get her reactivity under control, we’ll have to rehome her.” But there’s resentment from even non-cockapoo owners. As one friend put it to me: “I just hate what cockapoos have come to stand for, this designer dog that’s perfectly bred to serve and look cute for humans. When we’ve got around 7,000 dogs being euthanised by councils each year, not to mention brimming shelters. It feels selfish.” Whenever Mona acts up in public, there is a small, shameful part of me that worries we’ll both be judged: me for buying into a fad with my designer dog, and Mona for being badly behaved. So often when people assume she’s a cocker spaniel, I just let them. People seem to be more forgiving of a mental dog when it is a heritage breed. Back in 2012, Lady Gaga was an early adopter of cockapoo mania (Photo: LUCAS/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images) It’s in their genes O’Neill explains that the cockapoo is a surprisingly complicated dog. “From a biological perspective, a cockapoo is a cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle. But when you drill down into it, it’s not that simple.” For one thing, there is no one kind of spaniel or poodle, but there are several varieties within each breed: is your spaniel American or English? Working or show? And what size poodle are you breeding with? Then there’s the way the family tree impacts genetics: you can have first-generation cockapoos (F1) from a spaniel breeding with a poodle; second-generation cockapoos (F2), which result from breeding two cockapoos together; or an F2B cockapoo, where a cockapoo is bred back with its parent breed. (Mona is F2 – both her parents were cockapoos, but for whatever reason she appears more cock than poo.) The heterogeneity is why they are not recognised by the Royal Kennel Club as a breed. “The Royal Kennel Club only registers and develops breed standards for established pedigree breeds, which have a defined history, consistent characteristics and a breeding population that can be traced over generations,” explains Charlotte McNamara, chief canine wellbeing and engagement officer at The Royal Kennel Club. “Crossbreeds can, of course, have their own characteristics, but these can be less predictable, particularly where dogs are bred from different types or across subsequent generations.” Their genetic diversity could be part of the reason behind their behaviour problems. Unlike traditional dog breeds where their characteristics are consistent between litters, there are no guarantees with a crossbreed. So while you may hope you will get the best traits of both a cocker spaniel (playful, trainable, friendly) and a poodle (intelligent and affectionate), those same traits can co-conspire to make a dog genetically predisposed to resource guarding with growling and snapping, fussy behaviour (poodles’ intelligence can backfire, leading to them refusing food they don’t like), separation anxiety (both dogs are bred to bond closely with their owner) and excessive energy. Too smart for their own good Hannah Birrell, The Dog Psychologist, is an experienced and qualified dog behaviourist based in London who says “cockapoos make up maybe 20 or so per cent of my workload, although that has varied – and that is a huge number given the vast array of breeds that we see”. She often sees owners who have found that having a smart dog has backfired. “People think that getting a very intelligent dog is a good idea because you can teach it all sorts of things, but the dog can end up training you. That intelligence means that a dog can just get bored and needs to find its own ‘jobs’, and that’s a significant proportion of the cases we see in terms of behaviour issues.” Smart dogs like cockapoos will quickly learn that when they do something “naughty” (steal a sock, push a ball out of reach, refuse to get on lead) they get more attention. And so they will return to that trick when they’re bored or frustrated, slowly driving their owner insane. Similarly, dogs with working history like cocker spaniels have a lot of energy that needs to go somewhere. If they are not given enough stimulation, that can turn either into frustration or anxiety, which can then be channelled into destructive or aggressive behaviours. ‘Almost any problem that is projected onto cockapoos can be solved with better breeding practices, better socialising, and better training,’ says O’Sullivan (Provider: Teri Pengilley/The i Paper) Don’t blame the dog That said, only about seven per cent of a dog’s behaviour can be attributed to genetics according to O’Neill. Cockapoos are popular with breeders because they produce big litters (thanks to their genetic diversity), and as their popularity spiked during the pandemic, unscrupulous breeding practices proliferated. “Part of [their behavioural problems] may have been down to mass production of cockapoos: in the last couple of years there was a huge amount of money to be made from them,” he explains. When there’s money to be made, breeders can be indiscriminate about which dogs they breed together, who they sell them to, and crucially how they care for them before they’re sold. The first 12 weeks of a puppy’s life are fundamental to how they can function in human society: how well they are treated and socialised can be the difference between a dog that is scared and reactive, and one that is good-tempered and calm. If a puppy is unvaccinated, kept in a kennel and never exposed to children or traffic, they are going to struggle immensely once introduced to a pet environment. “Anytime we see a breed get popular [like cockapoos] we see an influx of illegal puppy smuggling, which itself leads to lots of behaviour issues and health issues,” says Dom Burk, behaviour officer for Dogs Trust. It’s significant, too, that this popularity increase happened during the pandemic. Owners who bought in on a whim were not equipped to properly socialise or train their dogs. Many of Britain’s army of cockapoos joined households during lockdown, so when the world opened up again, they inevitably struggled. The cockapoos are here to stay There’s no telling whether cockapoos will retain their crown as second most popular dog in Britain for long – other crosses with ridiculous portmanteau names (cavapoos, labradoodles, pomskys and bernedoodles) are all making their mark on parks across the country, and the backlash to cockapoos may already be putting potential future owners off. But O’Neill believes that the cockapoo is here to stay. “The current Vet Compass data shows that cockapoos are the second most common dog breed in the UK and the numbers are growing. We now have a Cockapoo Club [who celebrate the crossbreed and promote their ethical breeding], and I predict it won’t be very long before the major kennel clubs start recognising cockapoos and registering them.” The good news is that almost any problem that is projected onto cockapoos can be solved with better breeding practices, better socialising, and better training. In my experience, cockapoos are delightful. We just need to understand them for what they are: dogs, not a trend. “People see the cockapoo as the perfect family pet,” says O’Neill. “ So [they assume] it will be wonderful when I’m there and then just sit there until I come back and put the batteries back in.” While many of the problems with cockapoos are attributed to the dog, they really stem from us humans. Humans who want to make fast cash from breeding a popular dog type; humans who bring dogs home without researching what it takes to actually care for them; humans who expect animals to be products with manufactured consistency. Birrell agrees. “A large part of my job is trying to bridge the gap between the dog that exists in front of you and the dog in your mind”, she says. “Sometimes the dog in your mind doesn’t exist.”