Cockapoos have acquired a rather enviable reputation: sweet, soft, sociable teddy-bear dogs who love a cuddle, don’t shed too much hair and slip effortlessly into family life. And some of them absolutely are.
There are plenty of dreamy, easy-going ‘Angel Delight’ Cockapoos out there. But there are also Cockapoos who are energetic, intense, highly driven, easily frustrated, obsessed with scent and movement, determined to possess things and seemingly equipped with a brain that never actually switches off. For their owners, the surprise can be considerable — because this often isn’t the dog they thought they were bringing home.
As a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist, I see this mismatch between expectation and reality surprisingly often, and Cockapoos provide a particularly interesting example of why we need to look beyond appearance and think about what has actually gone into the dog in front of us.
Because underneath that teddy-bear exterior are two working breeds.
And that’s where things get interesting.
Dogs are not blank slates
Nearly every established dog breed was created with a purpose. Not a vague, fluffy be a lovely family pet sort of purpose, either, but often a highly specific job.
Border Collies were selected to control the movement of livestock. Spaniels were developed to search through cover and flush game. Retrievers needed to find, pick up and carry shot game. Terriers had to be persistent enough to pursue quarry. Scent hounds were expected to follow scent trails over considerable distances.
Generation after generation, humans selected dogs that were particularly good at doing these things.
So perhaps we shouldn’t be terribly surprised when those behavioural tendencies turn up in our homes.
When a Border Collie wants to control movement, a terrier excavates the flowerbed or a spaniel becomes utterly absorbed by a scent, these aren’t simply irritating habits that somebody forgot to train out of them.
They’re clues about the dog underneath.
And I should know, having once had the privilege of sharing my life with a Border Collie × Jack Russell cross who was my heart and soul. Talk about combining job descriptions.
The problem isn’t necessarily the dog — it’s the mismatch
Modern pet life frequently asks dogs to do almost precisely the opposite of the things their ancestors were selected to do.
We would quite like them to sit still, stay quiet, leave things alone, ignore fascinating smells, walk sedately past wildlife, cope beautifully with strangers and unknown dogs and — preferably — snooze peacefully while we’re working.
Then we’re surprised when some dogs find this harder than others.
That’s why one of the most useful questions I can ask when assessing a dog’s behaviour isn’t simply:
“How do we stop this behaviour?”
It’s:
“What is this dog exceptionally motivated to do?”
Because once we understand that, training becomes a great deal more intelligent.
What breeds make a Cockapoo?
A Cockapoo is a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle, usually a Miniature or Toy Poodle, although other combinations abound.
That sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly important because people sometimes research “Cockapoos” as though they’re a breed in their own right, without looking closely enough at the dogs on either side of the cross.
And Cocker Spaniels themselves aren’t all the same.
In the UK in particular, there’s an important distinction between show-type English Cocker Spaniels and Working Cocker Spaniels. A Working Cocker has been selected for exactly what its name suggests: work.
These can be extraordinarily energetic, persistent and responsive dogs, with powerful motivations around scent, searching, flushing and retrieving. Many have a considerable desire to pick things up and, occasionally, rather firm opinions about whether they should give them back.
Then add a Poodle.
Underneath the fabulous hairdo is another highly intelligent working dog with retrieving ancestry, impressive problem-solving abilities and, in many individuals, a considerable appetite for activity and mental stimulation.
Put the two together and you don’t necessarily get a dog who lands neatly halfway between them.
Genetics simply isn’t a smoothie maker.
A Working Cocker × Poodle isn’t necessarily a “half-and-half” dog
This is one of the misconceptions about crossbreeding that I think catches owners out.
Traits don’t arrive in tidy 50:50 parcels.
A Cockapoo puppy inherits a unique combination of genes from each parent, while their eventual behaviour will also be influenced by prenatal development, early experience, health, learning and the environment in which they grow up.
The characteristics of the parent breeds therefore don’t necessarily cancel each other out. In some individuals they can stack.
So instead of producing a pleasantly “moderate” dog, combining a highly driven Working Cocker with a bright, active Poodle may produce a canine overachiever who is faster to become bored, quicker to invent their own entertainment and extraordinarily persistent once they discover something rewarding.
That might mean living with:
- a brain that appears never to switch off;
- a nose that notices everything;
- a body that wants to move;
- an enormous appetite for stimulation;
- a strong desire to pick things up or possess them;
- and a dog who is extremely good at learning — including learning things you didn’t intend to teach.
That last one is important.
Intelligent dogs aren’t only good at learning our training exercises. They’re also very good at discovering that stealing the television remote makes humans leap off the sofa, that barking makes the delivery driver disappear and that launching themselves around the kitchen at 6.03 pm somehow causes dinner preparation to begin.
Learning is learning.
What does the research tell us about Cockapoo behaviour?
We now have some particularly interesting evidence suggesting that prospective owners should be cautious about assuming that “designer” Poodle crosses automatically combine the most desirable characteristics of their parent breeds.
A large 2026 study led by researchers at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) compared the behaviour of Cockapoos, Labradoodles and Cavapoos with their respective parent breeds.
The researchers analysed owner-reported data from 9,402 UK dogs, using the established C-BARQ behavioural questionnaire to examine characteristics including fear, aggression, excitability and separation-related behaviour.
Across the three Poodle crosses, the dogs differed from their parent breeds in approximately 54% of behavioural comparisons. Where significant differences occurred, the Poodle crosses showed more undesirable behaviour in 82% of those comparisons.
The areas highlighted included non-social fear — responses to things such as traffic and loud noises — separation-related behaviour and excitability.
But perhaps the most interesting part is what happened when the different crosses were considered separately.
Cockapoos showed the less desirable outcome in all 16 of the 24 comparisons in which they differed significantly from their parent breeds. These differences included higher scores for some forms of aggression, including owner-directed aggression and aggression towards other dogs within the household.
That absolutely does not mean Cockapoos are aggressive dogs, nor that an individual Cockapoo is destined to develop behaviour problems.
What it does mean is that we can’t simply assume that crossing two breeds automatically produces a behaviourally easier version of either one.
And I think that’s enormously important.
The same research also found associations between poorer health and increased behavioural problems, while dogs whose owners had not seen the puppy with its mother — potentially an indicator of poor breeding or illegal puppy sales — also showed poorer behavioural outcomes.
So breed heritage matters, but it isn’t destiny. Health, breeding practices, early development, learning and environment matter enormously too.
Why can some Cockapoos seem so hyperactive?
“Why is my Cockapoo so hyper?” is a question that comes up repeatedly. As does “Why does my Cockapoo steal things and then guard them?”
Sometimes the answer is partly hidden in the question.
We may be looking at a dog descended from animals deliberately selected for stamina, searching, retrieving, responsiveness and persistence, and asking why they aren’t naturally delighted with a quick circuit of the park followed by six hours admiring the sofa cushions.
For some dogs, ordinary physical exercise isn’t enough either.
Simply adding more and more walking can create an increasingly fit dog who still hasn’t had their behavioural needs met.
What many busy Cockapoos need is purposeful activity: opportunities to search, sniff, retrieve, problem-solve, learn, explore and use their brains as well as their bodies.
And this is where understanding the individual dog becomes far more useful than trying to exhaust them.
“How do I make my Cockapoo calmer?”
Increasingly, I’m interested in accepting the dog in front of us before trying to change them.
So rather than starting with: “How do I make my dog calmer?”
I’d rather ask: “What was this dog built to do, what does this particular individual love doing — and how can we work with that?”
Acceptance doesn’t mean abandoning training or allowing a dog to rampage around the countryside following every interesting smell.
Quite the opposite.
Good training gives dogs more freedom because we can communicate with them effectively. But we’re unlikely to train the spaniel out of a spaniel.
A scent-driven dog isn’t going to stop noticing smells. A highly active dog won’t necessarily become a natural couch potato with age. A dog with a powerful desire to retrieve and possess objects doesn’t stop having that motivation simply because we’ve labelled the behaviour “stealing”.
Instead, we can provide appropriate outlets for those behaviours while teaching the skills the dog needs to live successfully in our slightly peculiar human world.
That might mean searching and scent games, retrieving, purposeful walks, play, problem-solving and training that uses the dog’s natural abilities rather than constantly trying to suppress them.
And when those needs are understood, the very characteristics that seemed like “too much” can become wonderful assets.
Persistence becomes enthusiasm. Energy becomes engagement. Intelligence becomes trainability.
That apparently impossible dog suddenly makes considerably more sense.
Thinking of getting a Cockapoo?
Look beyond the teddy-bear exterior.
Find out exactly what the parents are. If the Cocker parent is a Working Cocker, understand what that may mean behaviourally. Meet the mother and, wherever possible, find out about the temperament of both parents. Ask about health testing, early rearing and socialisation.
And think seriously about what the parent breeds were developed to do — and whether those characteristics genuinely fit your life.
Most importantly, don’t choose any crossbreed because somebody has told you it will automatically be calmer, healthier, easier to train, non-shedding or “the perfect family dog”.
Dogs are individuals, and genetics doesn’t work to a marketing brief.
Already living with a very busy Cockapoo?
Then here’s the bit I’d really like you to take away from this article.
Your dog isn’t trying to frustrate you.
They may simply be more dog than you expected.
Once we stop comparing them with the imaginary dog we thought we were buying and start becoming curious about the actual animal standing in front of us, everything changes.
The magic happens when we stop asking our dogs to be less and start giving them opportunities to be more — just in the right direction.
And if you’re too young to understand my repeated references to Angel Delight, please locate your nearest Gen X person immediately and ask them to escort you to the appropriate supermarket aisle.
Butterscotch, obviously.
