We have MN’s most hated, a cockapoo, and MN’s most loved, a labrador puppy. Because of pup we are on 2x 30 minute walks a day, which is enough for the cockapoo but she also likes to go and go and go. We’ve kept our dog walker on during lockdown (which I would recommend anyway as it can be great socialisation for them) and yesterday the cockapoo was out for 3 hours with the dog walker (dog walker’s choice, not because she was under exercised). We’ve always done other things with our dogs, other than just walking them endlessly for hours to tire them out. During the week, if we walk the dogs they don’t go off lead either. At the minutes we are doing days with the dog walker - they’ll have a 40 minute run and a 25 min on lead walk. Non-dog walker days they have 2x 30 min walks on lead. Weekends they might have a longer walk but pup and lockdown are limiting factors at weekends now.
Outside of walks, we do some form of obedience every day. Sometimes it might be 10 minutes over the course of the day, sometimes it’s a bigger blocks of 20 minutes a couple of times a day. We play with our dogs. We do food exercises, scattering their food and making them sniff it out. We do scentwork. Before lockdown we would do flyball.
The labrador hasn’t really been road tested yet due to lockdown but the cockapoo is happy with 1x 40 minute walk but also happy walking for 8 hours a day. Neither of my dog are overweight. We go to dog training which does high energy activities such as agility. Dog training is really strict on the weight of dogs, if any dog is overweight they will not be allowed to use the agility equipment for risk of hurting themselves. The vets have always said both dogs have a lovely shape, are lean and aren’t concerned with their weight or activity levels. My dogs enjoy their walks but it’s not their only highlight of their day. Both dogs love the 10 minutes running in the garden chasing a football with DH. Lab particularly likes his 10 minutes of an evening parading around with his half chewed bone proudly showing it to everyone. His 15 minutes scouting for any dropped food after dinner is another highlight of his day.
We know a few cockapoos and none are neurotic. Ours is stubborn. None of the other cockapoos we know are stubborn, the attitude is just part of her temperament. We did have to work harder at training than other people we know with cockapoos. But someone we know with two labs had to work harder training the second because he was considerably slower on the uptake than her first lab. Individual temperaments of dogs is always going to play a role. We worked hard with training with the cockapoo and she is now one of the best behaved dogs we see when out and about. Although, if you do get any kind of cross breed and post asking for help, MN will tell you all the problems are a result of picking a cross breed rather than saying these are normal puppy problems and this is how you address them. We don’t have kids but our both our dogs love kids, the cockapoo more though. Many breeds are great with kids though. Staffie S also have an awful rep but every single one I’ve met has had a beautiful temperament and been wonderfully well trained. Although the older ones are very stubborn and refuse to admit they’re old now - usually pushing themselves to do the same level of activity they did when they were pups!