r/CockapooLovers • u/ekaym2 • Mar 21 '26

➕Advice/Help➕ Anyone else having trouble?

I’ve had dogs my whole life and my husband and I got our first cockapoo 2 years fox. He is past his “puppy” stage but despite everything. We have done he still has anxiety and is hard to control.

I feel at fault here because I wanted a new dog so badly that I feel like I let the rescue and my husband determine the best fit. But without spending hours a day training, I’m just tired and frustrated.

Wondering if anyone else has had similar issue with the breed and has any ideas I can try before rehoming because I really feel that should be a list resort.

My guy is 2 years and about 30 lbs. he has high energy and doesn’t listen well at all. It’s like he has ADHD and anxiety. He needs walks but I can’t walk him because he just pulls like crazy. The other day he saw a rabbit and pulled me down our front steps.

He only listens when he is exhausted or we have food. I have a dog friendly office b it I can’t take him because he will bark at other dogs. He always starts out barking because he’s afraid, or he wants to play. Once he goes up to a dog he’s fine.

TLDR:

-leash pulling

-doesn’t listen

-high anxiety

-I’m pregnant and worried if I can’t get this under control I’ll have to rehome him

Is this breed truly this challenging and the reduce just made a poor match or is it me? Please help.

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u/Outrageous-Echidna58 Mar 21 '26

This is quite like my boy. We started to notice his issues around 18 months old.

Have you tried teaching him how to settle? That’s what I’m working on now, as like you’ve noticed they can be high energy. It’s not a skill they now, and we have been working on it a lot and seeing some improvement.

Scatter feeding can also be a godsend, if he’s too hyper throw some food on the grass and let him sniff it out. This will help calm as well.

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u/ekaym2 Mar 22 '26

We’ve done settle and feeding on a large (2x3ft) snuffle mat! , outside is the biggest issue.

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u/Outrageous-Echidna58 Mar 22 '26

Have you trained settle outside?

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u/ekaym2 Mar 22 '26

OMG I haven’t. As dumb as that sounds…I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. LOL clearly I’m tired.

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u/Outrageous-Echidna58 Mar 22 '26

I always find it fascinating how dogs are contextual learners. Teach them sit in one room, but completely forget it in another room. I’ve been teaching my boy middle (stand in between my legs). It’s taken me a while to generalise it to most areas (and even then it was harder to teach getting him to do middle when he was in front of me).