If I had to pick one breed that walks through the door more than any other, at Honey’s House in Hunstanton or at CK9 in King’s Lynn, it would be the Cockapoo. Lovely dogs. Also, without question, the coat that owners find hardest to keep on top of between grooms. So here is the honest answer to the question I get asked most: how often does a Cockapoo need grooming, and what should you ask for?
Three Cockapoo coats, three different jobs
A Cockapoo is a cross, so the coat is a lottery. Broadly there are three types, and it helps to know which one you have.
Wool coats are the tight, curly, Poodle-leaning ones. They barely shed, which is why people choose them, but the hair that falls out stays tangled in the coat instead of landing on your sofa. That is exactly how mats start. A wool coat left to its own devices can go from fine to felted in a fortnight.
Fleece coats are the soft, wavy ones, the classic “teddy” look. They are the easiest of the three to live with, but they still need a proper comb-through to the skin, not just a brush over the top.
Hair coats lean towards the Cocker Spaniel side: straighter, silkier, and they do shed a bit. They mat less, but the feathering on the legs and ears still tangles, especially after a wet walk.
If you are not sure which you have, part the coat behind an ear and look at the root. Curl right down to the skin means wool. Waves mean fleece. Mostly straight means hair.
How often: the honest schedule
The usual advice for a Cockapoo is a Full Groom every six to eight weeks, and that is what I would start with for most of them. A Full Groom is a bath, a thorough dry, and a clip or scissor style to the length you want. Six weeks suits a dog kept short and tidy; eight weeks suits a dog kept a bit longer whose owner is brushing at home.
In between, a Bath & Tidy every three or four weeks keeps the face, feet and sanitary areas neat and gets the coat properly clean and dried without taking the length down. For a dog that swims at Old Hunstanton or Heacham every weekend, that middle visit is the difference between a coat that smells of sea and one that smells of dog.
What I would gently steer you away from is the “one big groom twice a year” pattern. The coat gets too far gone, the groom becomes a clip-off, and the dog spends half the year looking like a lamb and the other half looking like a hedge. Little and often is kinder and cheaper.
The styles people ask for, and what they mean
Groomers use a lot of words for Cockapoo styles and they do not all mean the same thing in every salon, so here is what I mean by them.
- Teddy bear. Body clipped to a medium length, legs left a little longer and scissored round, and a rounded head with a shorter muzzle so the dog looks like, well, a teddy. It is the most popular request and it suits fleece coats best.
- Lamb clip. Shorter on the body, longer on the legs, with a neater, more sculpted head. Practical for dogs that are out in all weathers.
- All-over. The same length everywhere, usually on the shorter side. The lowest-maintenance option, and the one I suggest when a coat has been struggling.
- The visor and the ears. Whatever you do with the body, the bits that frame the face matter most. A long fringe looks sweet until it hangs in the eyes; ears left long look lovely but they drag in water bowls and the sea.
If you want to say exactly what you mean, ask for a length in millimetres. “About 10 mm on the body, legs a bit longer, round the face” tells me far more than a style name.
If you only tell me one thing, tell me the length you want the body. Everything else can be worked out on the table.
“Keep it long” only works if you brush
Lots of owners want to keep the long, shaggy look, and it does look wonderful. But a long Cockapoo coat is a commitment. It needs a line brush to the skin at least three times a week, more when it is wet, and a comb check in the usual trouble spots. I have written a separate post on how to brush a Cockapoo at home with the actual method.
If that routine is not realistic for your household, and for plenty of busy families it is not, there is no shame in a shorter clip. A short, well-kept Cockapoo is a comfortable dog. A long, matted one is not, and the clip-off that follows is not a style, it is a rescue. There is a whole post on why I clip matted coats short.
The coast Cockapoo
A lot of my Hunstanton dogs spend their lives on the beach, and sand and salt are hard on a curly coat. Sand works its way into the undercoat and acts like sandpaper on the skin; salt dries the hair out and makes it tangle. After a beach walk, a rinse with plain water and a proper towel-dry (blot, do not rub) does more good than any product. Then let the coat dry fully before you brush it, because brushing a wet wool coat tightens the tangles.
What a Full Groom includes, and why it’s “from £45”
My Full Groom is from £45. It includes the bath, a full dry, the clip or scissor style of your choice, and the tidy round the eyes, feet and sanitary areas. The “from” is there because a small, regularly groomed Cockapoo sits at that end of the range, while a large one, or one whose coat has gone a long time without a brush, takes more time and the price follows the time. I will always tell you the price before I start. The price list has everything in one place, and there is a longer post on what changes the cost of a groom.
Quick questions
Can you clip the body short and leave the ears and tail long?
Yes, and it is a popular combination. Just bear in mind that long ears and a long tail still need brushing between visits, so you are keeping the two most tangle-prone parts of the dog.
Why does my Cockapoo look different after every groomer?
Because the style names are not standard. One salon’s teddy bear is another’s lamb. The fix is to describe the length you want in millimetres and bring a photo of a previous groom you liked.
When does a puppy get its first proper haircut?
Not at the first visit. A Puppy Intro is a gentle bath, dry and introduction to the clippers with no haircut, and the first real clip comes once the puppy is settled, usually as the adult coat starts to come through. There is a four-week plan for preparing your puppy if you are starting from scratch.