The Cockapoo dog breed belongs to the hybrid dog breed group. This delightful dog breed has become one of the nation’s favourite dog breeds to own. The Cockapoo is bred using a Cocker Spaniel and Poodle. This dog breed is known for being very friendly and extremely clever. They have a strong desire to please their loved ones and are always willing to learn new tricks and commands.
To understand how to train your Cockapoo, listed below are some training tips on how to ensure they’re trained correctly and grow into a well-behaved and obedient dog.
The basics
Firstly, you should place a collar on your Cockapoo puppy, so they get used to the idea of wearing one. To make this easier you can do this in your home. Simply place the collar and lead on them and allow them to roam the house with this on. Doing this will allow your puppy to feel comfortable wearing their collar and make it easier for you both when out walking.
Socialise your puppy
It is best to socialise your Cockapoo puppy from an early age. Introducing this so early on will benefit your puppy hugely, as they will benefit from the exposure of their surroundings and get them used to different sounds, smells, animals and other humans. You can also look to join a puppy socialisation class, as this will help improve your bond and you both get to socialise and meet new people and puppies.
Obedience training
All puppies need to be trained to obey commands and become obedient. Not only for them to do tricks on command, but listening, and doing as they’re told can help prevent any dangers from happening to them. They need to understand recall and when to sit, walk, lie-down and heel on command. These different commands will help stimulate their desire to please you and allows better control and increases the bond between you both.
Crate training
There are some people that disagree with the use of a crate. However, it’s been proven that your puppy will benefit from using a crate, as this can help them feel more comfortable and safe. You should always let them out frequently to roam under supervision and to do their toilet business outside. For some puppies, training them to use their crate can take several weeks. Cockapoos are a very intelligent dog breed, so they’re able to pick this up much quicker.
Toilet training
As well as using puppy training mat in the first few weeks during toilet training, you should look to remove these and encourage your puppy to do their toilet business outside. You can do this by placing them outside after every time they’ve eaten, drank or woken up. Using a gentle approach, positive encouragement and word association, will help them learn this much quicker and hopefully prevent any accidents in the house.
Methods for training
During any form of training, you must use positive reinforcement, which will help encourage your dog to obey and help them understand what they’re doing is right and well-behaved. Cockapoos can be very sensitive and are highly intelligent, so if your approach to training is too harsh, then, this will only discourage them and they’ll end up making mistakes and thus become afraid of you.
Treats are very useful to help encourage good behavior or to assist during training. As well as using lots of praise, you can also look to reward them with their favorite, yummy treats. Just make sure that the treats you use are used sparingly and not replacing their regular meal-times and bought from a reputable pet food store.
You must remember to be calm and patient during training. Your puppy will make mistakes and have the occasional accident indoors; just like babies do. You must never shout, punish or instill any fear or anguish, as this approach will only backfire and result in an unhappy dog.
Finally, puppies shouldn’t be allowed outside until they’ve had all of their correct shots and have been given the all clear by your vet. During the incubation period, you can spend a lot of time touching them, playing and teaching them new tricks indoors. Puppies that get used to a humans touch; very early on, will grow up to be confident and tolerant of being handled by the vets, groomers, dog walkers or anyone else; other than yourself.
If your Cockapoo is already grown up and you’ve decided to revisit their training, this can still be done, it will need some extra patience and understanding.
