Cockapoo Grooming

About the Cockapoo

A Cockapoo is a Cocker Spaniel crossed with a Poodle, and it is the oldest of the deliberate doodle crosses by several decades. What it inherits from the Poodle is a coat that grows continuously and holds shed hair rather than dropping it. What it inherits from the Cocker is long, heavy, low hanging ears.

Those two things between them account for almost the entire grooming conversation. The coat mats, on a four to six week cycle whether you like it or not, and the ears need watching in a way that a Poodle's do not quite.

The good news is that it is a small dog, so the appointment is around two hours rather than the three a Standard Poodle or a large doodle takes, and the home routine is genuinely manageable once it is a habit.

What the Cockapoo is crossed from

• Cocker Spaniel
• Poodle

What a full groom involves

A brush and comb through dry first, because bathing a coat with tangles in it sets them and a mat that could have been combed out beforehand often cannot be afterward.

Then a pre clip if the coat has length on it, a double bath and conditioner, and a full blow dry with a brush working through the coat. On a curly coat the dry is doing structural work rather than just removing water: a coat dried flat cannot be scissored to a line, and damp undercoat left in is where the next mat starts.

Then clipper work to set the body length, and scissor work on the legs, the head, the tail and especially the ears, which on this breed are long and feathered and are most of what makes the finished dog look like a Cockapoo rather than a small Poodle.

Ears cleaned and the hair inside dealt with, nails, pads cleared, sanitary trim.

Around two hours for a coat in good order.

How often, and what happens if you stretch it

Four to six weeks. This is not a breed where the interval is negotiable, because the coat never stops growing and never sheds out, so there is no length at which it settles by itself.

At eight weeks most Cockapoos are still recoverable with a longer appointment and a shorter finish. At twelve, the honest outcome is usually a strip down, because dematting a felted coat means pulling repeatedly on hair anchored in living skin and no reputable groomer will put a dog through hours of that to preserve a length.

The length and the interval have to move together. A long fluffy trim and a ten week gap are not compatible with each other, and choosing the long trim is choosing the daily comb. Choosing a shorter trim is a completely legitimate alternative that holds its shape longer and costs less to maintain.

The ears are the part that fails first regardless of the body coat, so even a short trimmed dog needs its ears checked between appointments.

The coat problems a Cockapoo actually gets

The ears are the one that separates this breed from other doodles. A Cocker ear is long, heavy and drops flat against the head, which seals the canal and stops air moving through it. Add the Poodle tendency to grow hair inside the canal, add feathering on the outside that mats, and you have the most infection prone ear in the doodle family.

Lift the flap weekly, look, and smell. Smell arrives before anything is visible. Head shaking, scratching at one ear, a tilt or a dark discharge is a veterinary matter rather than a grooming one, and cleaning an already inflamed ear makes it worse.

The coat problem is the same one every curly coat has: a slicker brush glides over the surface while a felted layer builds underneath, so brushing daily and being matted are entirely compatible. The comb settles it. Part the coat to the skin behind an ear and in an armpit and draw a metal comb outward. If it stops, the coat is matted whatever the brush says.

Then the puppy coat change, between about eight and fourteen months, when the soft puppy coat is pushed out by the adult coat and cannot fall away because the coat holds it. It is predictable and it is why so many young Cockapoos have their first short clip at a year old.

What moves the price

Coat condition first and by a distance. A maintained coat is a haircut; a felted one is a strip down, which is longer, harder and often needs a second pair of hands.

Coat type second, and it is invisible over the phone. Cockapoos vary from a tight wool coat closest to the Poodle through a soft wavy fleece to an almost straight hair coat that sheds a little and barely tangles. The wool end is meaningfully more work than the hair end and the breed name covers both.

Then the finish. A scissored trim with feathered ears, rounded legs and a shaped head is an hour of handwork that a short uniform clip is not.

Size barely moves it. This is a small dog that baths and dries quickly, and it costs more than plenty of much larger short coated dogs because almost none of the appointment is body work.

What to tell your groomer

Bring a photograph. Teddy bear, puppy cut and cockapoo cut mean different things in different salons and a picture does not.

Say what you want on the ears specifically, because they are the feature: left long and feathered they are the look most people want and they need combing every couple of days, and shortened they are cleaner, healthier and need far less of you. Plenty of owners with a dog that has had ear trouble take the second option deliberately.

Say honestly how often you comb rather than how often you intend to. A groomer told twice a week will recommend a length that survives twice a week.

Mention any history of ear infections, because it changes both the trim and how carefully the groomer looks.

And book the next appointment before you leave. A Cockapoo on a standing five week cycle is a predictable job at a predictable price, and almost every bad outcome with this breed is a gap that got away from somebody.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Cockapoo