Hi

I have been reading various posts on here regarding CKCS crossed with miniature poodles, "Cavapoos". 

I am a home boarder of small dogs and one of the dogs who has been staying with me is a Cavapoo.  I have had him here for 10 days or so and he is the cutest and nicest little fellow you could hope to meet.  Eats well and sleeps well, gets on well with all my dogs, really nothing bad to say about him,  he is about 2 I believe.

My daughter and her young family have been staying with me for a few days and they were  very taken with Alfie.  They are wanting to get a small dog and he with his calm demeanour and teddy bear looks has enchanted them. They have a large house in Wimbledon,  a nice garden and live next to a park.  I am uncertain whether to advise them to get a Cavapoo, although 2 of my dogs are crossbreeds (mongrels!) and one, my sheltie,  is a pedigree.  I have had no health with any of my three. 

If she does decide to go for one what I feel she would need is  a recommended good honest breeder - but looking at ads for these on the net seems confusing and information about the breeders and location is sparse.  I do agree it is much more desirable to plump for a pedigree (you know what you are getting) but there must be plenty of people out there with very nice healthy little Cavapoos.  I would be interested to hear from actual Cavapoo owners and their experiences.  Send me a private message if you like.

Thank you all!

Snowflake

The thing with crossbreeds is you have no idea what you are going to get it may be cute and manageable or it may be ugly and a pain in the butt. The other thing you need to think about is how many ethical and careful breeders are going to deliberately breed a crossbreed or mongrel so baring an accidental mating what sort of quality do your think the parents are going to be and how many will be health tested.

My ex-boss's wife decided to get a Cockapoo. She had met one and fell in love with it. Her puppy grew up to be quite different in both looks and coat and she was rather disappointed :( It was still a nice dog, but she didn't get what she thought she was getting :) :) Your daughter would be as well going to a rescue if she doesn't want to go down the conventional 'pedigree' route :)

Considering the number of very serious health complaints you can get with a Cavalier, which don't tend to show up until the dog is older (often 5 or so), unless you can find a breeder of these crosses that does annual heart testing, knows the heart status of both the parents of the Cavalier (that they were heart clear at at least 5 years of age) and has MRI scanned for Syringomyelia at at least  2 ½ years of age, then I would stay well clear. The fact one parent is of a different breed doesn't guarantee anything. I have two accidental crossbreeds. First cross. The father had very bad hips, the mother had very good hips. The son has ended up with bad hips, the daughter with good -it's pot luck.

I am not a Cavapoo owner but as a dog groomer I see a lot of Poodle crosses of all types. They are a very variable bunch. Some taking strongly after one parent and some taking after the other. Some bear no resemblance to either breed. Very often the pups grow bigger than either parent and are very often much more liveley and exuberant than a purebred pup would be. Some crosses I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Eg Poodle x Collie as the only ones I have met have been total head cases in each case.

Coats vary hugeley too.  Some are quite easily managed and some matt at teh slightest excuse. Some are wiry and short and some are long and soft. there is no consistency.

Don't forget that as a home boarder you will not be seeing the "real" dog. it can take a dog up to 6 months to fully settle into a home and start showing their true behaviour. You will be experienceing the honeymoon period which you often get with rescue dogs.  although delightful and calm now it this dog may not be so nice to live with if you had it for a longer time.

Judging by ONE lovely crossbreed is unreliable for all the reasons given above.
Bit like make saying all Weims are nasty because I was bitten by one!

Have a friend who has one. She's definitely not calm, I would actually say hyper.  Her eyes don't look right to me and others either.  She has extremely bulging eyes, would say most of the eye is sticking out, they look very strange.  She likes a lot of people and other dogs but she also has the other side to her where she doesn't like certain people nor dogs and you can't make out why not.  She does adore my mum though LOL.

I would suggest buy a true  pure bred Cavalier from a breeder who does all the health testing a listed above.
Both my daughters have cavalier KC Spaniels and they are the most lovely friendly dogs you could wish for.
Why take the risk of buying something that you have no idea how it is going to turn out, or what health issues may manifest later.
With a pedigree dog from a good breeder, you know what you are likely to get, and will be able to see other relatives, most breeders will be able to supply photos of dogs over several generations, so that you can see the type of dogs they produce.
With crossbreeds you will probably pay less, as there are loads on internet sites and free add papers, but your daughter could end up paying a lot more in vets fees and heart ache down the line.
Puppy farmers and back yard breeders produce a lot of these designer cross breeds and many are not well reared or socialised.
Which ever breed of dog your daughter chooses, please tell her to spend some time doing some research, talk to several breeders and never buy a puppy that can not be seen with it's mother. If you visit a litter and you are at all sceptical walk away.

unless you can find a breeder of a cross breed who is doing all the recommended health tests for both breeds I would not consider them a good breeder, however it seems the vast majority of crossbreed breeders don't do any health testing.
So the testing would be eye testing and heart testing, as well as MRI and DNA testing for PRA, CC/DE, EF
When some of the labradoodle breeders started hip scoring it turned out the average for them were higher than labs and poodles. My local rescue had a little cavXpiek puppy that had been handed in as it had spingomilira. Yes if one breed has a ressive genetic problem and the gene doesn't exist in the other breed a first generation cross wont be effected by it but could be a carrier so in the second+ generation one there just the same amount of chance of putting two carriers together, and not all problems have a genetic test.

Then you need to keep in mind that as a cross breed they don't breed true, even in litter mates they can look/act completely different. You could get a mix of breed traits, you could get the best parts of the breeds or you could get the worst parts of the breeds. If you get a puppy you will not know how it will grow up to be. My brothers mother in law brought a multi generation labradoodle from the breeder who told them it would look just like the parents who had the shaggy coat, beard and eyebrows with no shedding and it would have all the best parts of both breeds, well there dog is the compleat oppersit to what they thought they were told they would get. There not happy at all.

realy it comes down to what they want, if they have an idea of what they want a dog to look/act like and want to know what there getting then a cross breed puppy isnt for them, if they arnt bothered what they end up with then a crossbreed puppy might be for them.

if they arnt bothered what they end up with then a crossbreed puppy might be for them.

But if that is the case would they not be better advised to go to rescue.

yes a rescue would be best if they couldn't find a crossbreed breeder who is health testing. Don't think in any of the cavapoo litters ive seen advertised on line there has been one mention of a health test. Only see a few labradoodle breeders doing eye test and hip score so far.

I only mentioned crossbred puppy as they wont know what there getting and wanted to point that out, if they went for an adult they would know what there getting. just assuming there after a puppy, I know some people wont take on an adult but as you can commonly get both adults and puppies in rescues they could get either.

Expect to pay up to TWICE as much for a designer crossbreed than a purebred CKCS.

The characteristics you have described sound very poodle like. Poodles can appear similar to teddy bears, especially if their coat is left to get quite lot and not managed well( i'm not keen on this look, but hey, each to their own). If this is what your daughter and her family like why not go down the poodle route. At least you know more of what you're getting. As others have said the issues with CKCS health and also the uncertainty of what you'll end up with (and price) if a cross breed would be enough to put me off.

(and price) if a cross breed would be enough to put me off.

Have never been able to understand why people will buy a crossbreed with untested ancestors with very little quality or type and pay more for it than they would if they bought one of the breeds from a source that has been health tested for years, and has quality and type - no accounting of the strange behaviour of the human race.

When doing a mating you never know how the dice are going to fall.  I wouldn't want a puppy with a difficult like a poodle and the health problems of a Cavalier!  Oh no!  :(

There's no way I would take a chance.  I'd be looking at all the breeds that I liked and then find an experienced and knowledgeable breeder and go on their waiting list.  The wait will be worthwhile. :)

Too much of a gamble for my liking, as has been said you just do not know what you're going to end up with.  There are myriad doodles round here of all shapes and sizes and it is a completely mixed collection - some very OTT, some nervous/cautious, some calm (the minority), some with soft coats, some harsh, so on and so forth.

You just don't know what you'll get.  At the park I regularly see three cockerpoos from three different litters - one is fairly calm, friendly, sensible; one is a bit of a loop, ball obsessed but fairly sane; both of those have a mostly poodley coat.  But the other is a complete nutbag, manic, and with a coat like an Irish water spaniel!

Temperament-wise you don't know what you're getting with any dog. You can research your chosen breed 'til the cows come home, you can pick the most experienced and knowledgeable breeder in the country but it still won't guarantee you a problem-free dog.
I speak from experience !

Problem free?  Of course not, nobody can do that when you're dealing with genetics.  Sometimes nature can come back and bite you on the bum! :)

But an experienced and knowledgable breeder who knows the lines behind their dogs will offer much better odds than someone putting two pet dogs together with no idea, health or temperament, what's behind either of them.

Temperament-wise you don't know what you're getting with any dog. You can research your chosen breed 'til the cows come home, you can pick the most experienced and knowledgeable breeder in the country but it still won't guarantee you a problem-free dog. I speak from experience !

You can have the best bred, best temperament pup, and still end up with problems.    The pup is only half of the story, what happens after the pup leaves the breeder is the other half.    No breeder has control over that.

In addition, a breeder can only go so far with genetics.    No one has a crystal ball - if only they did, there would be no more dogs getting ill, and every show pup would be a Crufts winner!     

General temperament is not all down to genetics, how the pup is brought up And what experiences it's had will play a part. So that can't be guaranteed in any pup. But you will know a rough guide of breed traits to expect  (some wont have them though) when I looked into my breed it said they tend to nip ankles and need training out of it. So I knew to expect it and it wasn't a problem for me.

The old breeders used to say "A bad owner can make a good dog bad but can't make a bad dog good if it's in the blood" - they didn't understand genes then but did know about breeding! :)

"A bad owner can make a good dog bad but can't make a bad dog good if it's in the blood"

That's so true :-)

Just think how exercise and feeding can influence the growth and health of puppies...

On the other hand genetics can be very influential too.   My home-bred bitches father had an amazing temperament and passed it on to his puppies, who have passed it on to their puppies and so on.   

Having raised littermates who were temperamentally chalk and cheese I know for a fact that there's no glib answer!

> On the other hand genetics can be very influential too.

Oh yes I am continually surprised at the traits that are handed down between generations. I personally know of a line of dogs where there appears to be a blanket sucking gene. Various relatives of this line all suck blankets or cuddly toys. not every dog, but far more than in unrelated lines.

my brother is collecting his cavapoo puppy in 3 weeks time ... I've kept my mouth mostly shut on the subject as when they asked me for advice they didn't like my answer.  Fingers crossed they do ok!

I have no problem with people buying a Cavapoo. The price for a CAVALIER from two *untested*, unregistered parents on E****z is around £400.
Ergo...the cross between the two breeds similarly untested should be the same.

Any more and the buyer is a fool.

Someone I used to work with has a cavachon (Cavalier and Bichon cross) and he's huge!! At least twice the size of the original breeds. Have just seen a photo on fb of him and a littermate and they are both the same size. I was nosy the other day and looked at the website of where they got him from, must say it was a very flash site, can totally see why Joe Public get sucked into paying the prices they charge.