Life with a Cockapoo - One Year In

 Today is Fozzy's Gotcha Day! What a year it's been. It's been ages since I shared an update so thought I would share a well overdue post. 

Routine 

Fozzy has such a good routine now and I would say he thrives on his routine. He definitely has an internal body clock where he knows what time the kids will be home or if we are going to the gym (as he doesn't get excited thinking he is going for a walk). 

On a weekday, Harry walks him in the morning before school and he plays with Jack a little too. Then Steve and I feed him his breakfast at around 8:30am and he has a little snooze. 

We both work from home and he's fine and just snoozes / potters around. Sometimes we take him to the field after lunch and play ball for a bit. 

At around 3pm, he does start to get restless as he knows the kids will be home soon and at around this time he tries and climbs on our laps as we are working. 

Dee walks him when she gets home from school and Jack usually plays with him for around an hour before tea - mostly running around the house chasing each other or playing hide and seek. 

He has his tea at 5pm and then settles down for the night from around 7:30pm. We let him out for his bedtime wee in the garden around 9pm and then he just takes himself to his bed in our living room. 

Food

Fozzy is still raw fed, we recently switched to DIY raw to try and save a bit of cash / provide more variety and he loves it. His favourite things to eat are venison, furry rabbit ears, sardines and chicken wings. 

Sleeping 

He is such a good sleeper and normally takes himself to his dog bed in the living room after 7pm for his night time snoozes. He will switch between jumping on the sofa to snooze and the corner of the room on the floor too.

He sleeps through every night until the kids get up for school or on a weekend will sleep longer - just until we get up really (usually between 8am-8:30am). He's no bother in that respect. 

Adventures 

Fozzy loves going on little trips with us and now will jump straight into the car boot as he knows we're off somewhere fun. He has been on 9 mini breaks this year and lots of adventures from steam train trips to riding a cable car up a hill, visiting museums, taking a trip to Mother Shipton's Cave, trekking some of Hadrian's Wall, visiting farms and aquariums. 

I am so pleased that he loves a day out! We have a few plans in the pipeline for this year including a glamping trip later this month and a trip to Center Parcs next month which I can't wait for. 

Despite his love for adventures, his all time favourite activity is just a simple trip to the beach to run around and play ball, especially if the full family is there. 

Walking 

Fozzy is a bit of a lead puller, I would say around 50% of the time and it is usually when he gets too excited or gets the scent of something or is walking along a route he knows well and wants to get there (eg the field near our house or his grandma's house). He is slowly getting better and it's just something we have to be consistent with over a long time I think.  

Training 

He's pretty well trained and doesn't have accidents in the house / chew or eat things he shouldn't (with the exception of socks which he always manages to steal when I'm sorting the washing!).

He went through a period at around 9 months where I felt like I couldn't trust him off lead but that seems to have gone now and he's back to listening to us / having good recall again. I'm not someone who lets my dog off lead all of the time though and generally only let him off on the field near us where we can find a quiet spot to play or the beach when he only has eyes for us. 

No More Crate 

We stopped using his crate at around 8 months. I am a strong advocate for crate training and would recommend to all owners, it really helped Fozzy settle and I would have carried on using it forever if it was still needed. 

But it got to the stage where his crate wasn't really needed for us anymore - he is fine to be left in the house and around us eating etc and has plenty of space to chill out and be alone.....in the end he literally only slept in his crate at night. So we switched it for a dog bed and the transition was super smooth and we haven't looked back. 

He's a Bouncy Cockapoo & People Pleaser 

Fozzy is very much a typical Cockapoo - he is still super bouncy. When we first come downstairs in the morning or back from popping out, he is literally jumping all over the place like a kangaroo. If we tell him 'down' and use a specific hand action he won't jump up but it won't stop him doing it again next time. 

He is also ALL OVER anyone who visits our house. Jumping straight on their knee and getting super excited / snuggling into them. Luckily, everyone who visits our house at the moment does not mind this but it's something we probably do need to get stricter with as it's not everyone's cup of tea.

He's also a really big people pleaser, knows exactly how to get what he wants and I think it's hard not to love him! 

With Other Dogs 

We still have another 2 year old Cockapoo (Ollie) spend a day with us once a month. Fozzy absolutely loves Ollie and although Ollie is smaller and doesn't live here. Ollie is definitely the alpha male out of the two (which I find weird as their personalities seem the opposite). They both play nicely together and walk together really well and when Ollie is here sometimes Fozzy goes back to being a super playful puppy which is cute. 

Fozzy did go through a phase of wanting to play with every single dog we met but we have been working on that and he has definitely improved, sometimes (not always) we can walk past a dog with no reaction from Fozzy at all. Sometimes I do still let him go and say hello (after asking the owner if it's ok) and sometimes he still does get ridiculously excited when he sees another dog. It's all about balance isn't it! 

Weirdly, when we are at the beach and other dogs run over the play with Fozzy, he just gives them the cold shoulder and doesn't really interact with them at all! 


It has been a brilliant first year with Fozzy. I would say it's been exactly as expected and I can't wait for year two.