The only sort of mongrel that is allowed on MN is one that has come from a rescue.
There are dogs that go through phases of popularity, which poo mixes are at the moment, so all those people who can’t be bothered to train a dog get the popular breed and that tarnishes the opinion of all others from that breed. There are a lot of people that can’t be bothered to train dogs. They wouldn’t be bothered to train them whether they have a poodle mix, a chihuahua or a Labrador. The people who can’t be bothered to train a dog aren’t going to be the people who get a rare breed. There are people who get these popular breeds and cross breeds who are willing to train though. But you remember the negative ones and that stays with you, tarnishing the rest of the breed.
I’ve got a cockapoo and a Labrador. So MN’s most hated and most approved dog. My Labrador is far more neurotic than my cockapoo. He has some mild resource guarding issues and struggles being left. The cockapoo has a lot of sass but she isn’t neurotic. They were both difficult to train but in different ways. The cockapoo was stubborn and I know dogs can’t technically roll their eyes but this one gets close. She’s wonderfully trained and she will do as she’s told but we do sometimes get an eye roll if it’s not what she wants. The Labrador was easy in that he’s food driven by nature but he’s also so full on. Getting the Labrador to stop and think is a challenge. He has two speeds - asleep or bull in a China shop.
The cockapoo has never been muzzled and I don’t need to muzzle her. She had a grass seed stuck in the very bottom of her ear canal and the vet pulled it out without her being under sedation or reacting badly. I told her she was a good girl and trickle fed her treats. She yelped in pain but the vet was never worried about being bitten. When she was spayed and we took her in to have her stitches out, she lay on the floor of the vets in a dead and lifted her leg to allow the vet access to her stitches. Then got up and gave the vet a big kiss. The Labrador is nowhere near as good at being handled, he’s getting there though but it’s taking a lot more work than the cockapoo. I don’t think we’ll need to muzzle him but we do have to regularly do handling training with him.
There are downsides to poodle mixes, like grass seeds, but that is applicable to poodles and cocker spaniels. Also most non-shedding dogs. Cocker spaniels and poodles are generally both very intelligent dogs and a poodle mix will also likely be very intelligent. For some dogs, that will manifest as needing hours of stimulation. For our dog is manifested as stubbornness and a fondness for shortcuts, especially at training. We struggle to recall to front, hold, then send to heel because she knows she gets sent to heel so will just come and sit at heel. She can’t be bothered with the middle bit. That’s not a huge problem now as we don’t do dog shows or anything and she does what we want but as a teenager it added an extra layer to the teenage angst. They also require a lot of grooming, again so do poodles and cockers, you’ll need to brush them regularly and also get their coat trimmed. Personally, I can’t be bothered with the teddy bear cut, it grows out too fast. I just ask the groomer to take it quite short and then let her grow out. She goes about 10-12 weeks between cuts.
We’ve worked hard to train both our dogs. The cockapoo was easy as a puppy but hard as a teenager. The Labrador was really hard as a puppy but is doing better in the teenage years (so far). We did a lot with our cockapoo before lockdown. We did agility and flyball once a month. We also still attend training with her (she’s 4). This isn’t because she’s neurotic or naughty. It’s because she enjoys training and so do we. Even though we did a lot, the cockapoo is actually happy lazing around. We don’t have to do something intense with her every day, contrary to popular belief on here.
My cockapoo has been hard work at times. I’m not denying that. Honestly, her teenage phase was really hard. However, she is absolutely one of the better behaved dogs that Ive met. It pisses me off that because a lot of people who couldn’t be bothered to train a dog got cockapoos, they now have this bad rep. But all cockapoos are the same.