Cockapoo breeder

[BurnedToast]

Can anyone recommend a cockapoo breeder? We're in sw London but dont mind travelling. We're looking for a black or tuxedo cockapoo puppy from the end of August. Thank you.

Grabbing at any recommendations off someone on the internet is normally the direct route to puppy farms!

How do you think they get their profits!

I am not saying that Filly is or isnt, just thats how punters get drawn in, strangers off the internet.

4 litters? Fuck me. No decent breeder would be getting 4 litters out of their dog, that is pushing it to the absolute upper limit of acceptability (And cynically they'd probably be doing more if associations like the kennel club hadn't limited their recommendations and registration procedures to a max of 4 in a lifetime).

I knew I should have kept quiet

I should have said “max 4 litters”, and it’s over quite a number of years. They are a “hobby breeder” (is that the right phrase) and these are their pets. They take it very seriously.

That said, I should make clear that i massively agree with most of the posts on here. I’ve been absolutely shocked and appalled by how many people I know in rl who have been willing to drive to somewhere random (usually Wales) to get their puppy, or, even worse “meet someone in the motorway services”. There’s some awful awful things going on out there with puppy farms and you really need to be careful.

And OP, my apologies but @Smotheroffive makes a very good point about randoms on the Internet (although a quick search would reveal that this would have been a 14 year play for that one moment...hardly ROI!) - it’s not the right way to go about this.

In any case the breeder wouldn’t accept an enquiry without my name and direct recommendation...

I’d suggest asking around in your area and following some of the good advice on this thread.

If only it was that easy and obvious!

Noone serious or knowledgeable about ddogs picks up a puppy from a motorway service stop, how sad is that. Poor little dogs, and the suffering where theyve come from.

They charge really high prices too.

Puppy farmers will put pups in host homes for prospective gullibles to come see, they fall in love with a puppy and that's it.

Turning up online and asking for puppies is the best way i can think of to get hold of puppy farmers!

Makes me wonder what research has actually.been done to resort to this.

Its certainly not what a responsible purchaser does.

No personal attack on you Filly. We are all just internet randoms arent we!

Farmers have been on the internet many years and have other communications about other things of interest going on in their lives too.

‘Hobby breeder’ is just the sanitised word for BYB money grubber. It’s your pet not your wage packet.

Thank you Filly. I will PM you.

Why so particular about the colour. I think you'd be better concerning yourself with finding a good breeder and a healthy pup than the colour of the dog. The more particular you are the more at risk you will be of buying a irresponsibley bred puppy, or a bad temperament puppy or a sick puppy.

Also true poodles don't come in mixed colours I don't know about cockers but I would question the heritage of a tuxedo cockerpoo.

They also look nothing like a poodle.

It’s half poodle. It does look quite like a natural coated poodle. Although I thought I was going mad for a minute so just had to head off to google images to check.

‘Hobby breeder’ is just the sanitised word for BYB money grubber.
I disagree. A hobby breeder is anyone who takes a litter or two off their bitch. I know of local spaniel litters where the breeders had bitches with lovely temperaments, went for health-tested studs, checked the COI of the mating and vetted potential purchasers. I've known hobby breeders take a dog back.

Hobby breeders are also the ones who keep unfashionable lines alive, because they're more likely to use a stud within a few counties than they are to travel 300 miles to put their bitch to the latest show champion who has already sired 25% of litters in the breed in the last year. This helps maintain genetic diversity in the breed.

It would probably be more helpful all round to tell people how to avoid puppy farms rather than slag off people who breed the odd litter off the family pet (when the puppies are, usually, indoors, properly socialised and much loved).

So... if you are buying a puppy, more than anything else make sure that you see it with its dam in someone's house (and make sure it's the dam - right breed, with milk in, looking after the puppies). Ask to see photos of the dam with the putative owner before she had puppies (I watched videos on the breeder's phone of him working our young dog's dam). See if the owner will friend you on FB and go through their feed (I found a photo of a get-together of puppies from the previous litter). Ask to see KC registration certificates and anything else relevant. Expect to be asked lots of questions.

Why so particular about the colour Why do some people want chocolate labs and others want black? Why do some people what black cockers and others want roan?

People are allowed to want specific looking dogs.

And phantom poodles, whilst not KC accepted, are common now.

Well, I am concerned about the breeder. That's why I'm here. I haven't come here saying please direct my to the nearest puppy farm and I don't care how sick they are, they must be black.

There really are some up tight sanctimonious 'you don't want to do this, you want to do that' types here. I can tell by some of the comments that many of you are talking out of your arse.

www.thekennelclub.org.uk/services/public/breed/restrictions.aspx?id=2058

Just something to keep in mind when you meet / ask questions of a breeder.

These rules are for breeders who want to KC register the puppies. Crosses cannot be KC registered.
So, steer clear if the breeder is alternating or extending the breeding life of a bitch by producing crosses. You will be able to check through KC how many litters (and when) the bitch produced.

What can you tell exactly?

You are looking for breeders on the internet, your bad.

Pp have offered really sound advice and your resoonse is to get shitty with them.

Noone here wants to see yet another puppy farmer making a mint out of a prospectice puppy owner.

I think all here want an end to puppy farms, but that doesn't mean you will avoid one.
.you dont say, what research have you done exactly.

Any good research would tell you to stay away from the internet looking for breeders as it draws them like flies to shit, frankly.

How do you not know this.

No, poodles don't come in mixed colours, spaniels can be tricolour, liver, white, black and cockers brown also. Many show spaniels have a black coat with dappled white underbelly and feathering.

Some working/breeding owners will tell you a particular black/white line is good natured, etc, or a particular tricolour, equally, there is a particukarlt poor libe that is currently overpopulating many spaniels and crosses, i wishni could recall the kennel name for tou to check the line.. oh hang on, you wont be able to legitimately check the lines any cross breed comes from will you.

Good breeders will know this know and can advise you. Please go find some.

Stop looking for puppies and find lots of breeders, that means going to club shows, and speaking to club members. I guess there wont be any of those though, maybe vets local to you will be a good starting point? Although i think they will be bound by customer confidentiality and cant recommend one over another particularly?

Maybe, you could see how many forums there are for this mix of breeds? Peruse them, and glean all you can, perhaps join and ask.

But if you havent done this alreasyy im not sure what research you can have done.

They are a “hobby breeder” (is that the right phrase) and these are their pets. They take it very seriously.

Of course they take if seriously, they're making a fortune at it....

I have a cocker. He's great.

Hope you find someone reputable. They're a lovely dog. Mine isn't crazy high energy either.

Poodles very much do come in multi colours - parti coloured, tuxedo, phantom now too. It's a fairly recent thing that they have been mainly bred in solid colours as historically they were parti coloured, and unfortunately, like the 'poodle cut' has been encouraged to conform to kennel club standards for showing. Black and white parti poodles in particular are stunning.

To all of those concerned that I'm going to just go and buy a puppy from a random recommendation from the Internet I can assure you I'm not. All I was asking for was if anyone knew of a good breeder of cockapoos. I would have then contacted them and followed all the correct procedures and asked all the right questions. I don't need lessons in what to ask or advice about our choice of dog or questions about why I want a particular colour. None of that is relevant to what I was asking.

Cockerpoos look a LOT like poodles.
They are also fantastic. A great, under rated breed.

I meant poodles are fantastic and under rated. Mine is a mini poodle and apart from once everyone we meet assumes he’s a cockerpoo

I just don't understand why you would be so particular about colour. I understand wanting a certain breed (although personally I think cockerpoo are pointless and just remarketing of poodles) but what difference does it make what colour it is.

Again, @Firstimpressionsofearth I wonder if you would query a Labrador owner who only wanted a black lab? Or someone who wanted a black cocker spaniel?

@BurnedToast We did try and warn you about mentioning cockapoos! don't worry someone will come along and tell you to rescue a lurcher instead, then you'll have the full Bingo set

It's a fairly recent thing that they have been mainly bred in solid colours as historically they were parti coloured

When you say fairly recent? Are we talking in the last few years?

I cant say ive ever seen or heard of a parti coloured poodle at crufts as a recognised standard?

But happy to be corrected!

I'm very gratified to see this tone of thread.

If someone thinks that a parenting forum is a good place to get top quality recommendations about dog breeders then there is something amiss from the get go.

If these responses make a few people think more carefully about where they get their dog from, and perhaps slowly start to erode the custom of puppy farmers and the irresponsible breeding of puppies, and the obsession with fashionable brachy breeds and random crosses (who rarely turn out as good as planned) then it's a great thing and well worth a few random posters getting a little bit narked off!!
Go doghouse mumsnetters!!