Can a Cockapoo be a Service Dog?

With their kind and loving nature and keen minds, it is easy to understand how Cockapoos would be shortlisted by anyone trying to find a breed best suited for the task.

There is a wide range of activities and roles an assistance dog can help out with. You are likely quite familiar with some of the main roles such as a guide dog or an emotional support animal. However, what you may not be aware of is that it is not just a handful of specific breeds that are able to become one.

While not the most common choice, Cockapoos are brilliant assistance dogs. In this article, we will look at the qualities Cockapoos have that not only win over those looking for a family dog when looking for service animals and the many ways a Cockapoo can be trained to support you.

What Makes a Cockapoo a Good Assistance Dog?

There are many qualities that make Cockapoos brilliant choices for a wide range of jobs supporting their owners.

While this statement will not come as a surprise to anyone who has a Cockapoo or has even met one, let's run over the main traits that help this popular Cocker Spaniel mix excel in this area.

Highly Intelligent

Being half Cocker and half Poodle, a Cockapoo is a very intelligent dog. This means training a Cockapoo to become an assistance dog will be straightforward, well, at least easier than many other breeds would be.

No matter what is required you can be sure that their keen intellect will serve a Cockapoo well as an assistance dog.

Being really smart can also be very helpful in certain positions. For example, guide dogs are trained to have intelligent disobedience. This means when their owner asks the dog to do something that would endanger their owner they will refuse, even though they are trained to listen.

Obedient

Some breeds are known for their strong-willed nature or for being a little stubborn, but not the Cockapoo. This breed is very amenable and always keen to please. This ensures your dog will not only listen intently when being trained but take instructions clearly and quickly when with their owners.

Strong Family Bonds

Cockapoos also bond deeply with their family, another important trait that is a reason they make great family dogs, but also why they will excel in many of these jobs.

Always wanting to be around their 'pack' ensures a Cockapoo will always keep its owner safe from harm.

Affectionate and Friendly

Cockapoos are renowned for their hard-to-rival loving and affectionate natures, likely something to thank the English Cocker Spaniel side of their genetics for.

Definitely the right temperament for many jobs Cockapoos might be trained to do. Particularly therapy dogs who are there to comfort.

What is a Service Dog?

Service animals support their owner's lives in many ways depending on how what they are trained to do.

This could be as a therapy dog to provide comfort and emotional support or even trained to support their owners with medical conditions such as allergic reactions.

Types of Service Dogs

As I briefly talked about above there are many types of service dogs you might come across. Let's take a look at each type in turn.

Therapy Dogs

Therapy dogs are trained to support their owners with affection and love. Already sounds like a job made for a Cockapoo, right?

These dogs are often seen in nursing homes, hospitals, schools, or with those who may just need a little extra support. There are many benefits to a therapy dog spending time with people in stressful or distressing situations such as reduced anxiety.

Medical Assistance Dog

Another job that Cockapoos are well suited to be being trained to support owners with specific medical needs. Though, depending on the type of Cockapoo you have some might not be a great fit. I'm referring to the smaller toy dogs here.

The main medical assistance dogs are:

• Seizure alert and response dog
• Diabetic alert dog
• Allergy detection dog
• Mobility assistance dog

Of course, all of these jobs are very serious and can even save your life. And as a result, will require specialist training. You can get more information about this on Assistance Dogs UK's website.

Guide Dogs

Next, we have a dog whose role is to help the visually impaired. For a Cockapoo to become a guide dog it will be placed in their training at around one year old. But no later than 18 months.

The training for this job is very rigorous with only 50-60% making it through! This is completely understandable though seeing that a guide dog is to be the eyes of its owner.

Hearing Dogs

Much like guide dogs who act as their owner's eyes, we have hearing dogs who are their owner's ears.

This type of service animal will alert its owner to sounds that they would miss. This could be as simple as a doorbell or something more dangerous such as a fire alarm.

It is easy to see just how much of a big role a hearing dog plays in its owner's life.

Can Any Cockapoo be a Service Dog?

Yes and no, whether your dog can be put to work as a service dog will depend on a few factors.

Firstly, your dog's age. As you will now know many of these roles require your dog to be a certain age to be trained.

Aside from this, there can be hoops to jump through to get qualified as a service animal. For example, therapy dogs have to be certified as such before they can be classed as one. As much as your Cockapoo makes to feel relaxed and mellow after a tough day you'll still need to tick this box.

Conclusion

So, can Cockapoos be assistance dogs?

Yes! This designer dog breed can definitely be trained to work in a wide range of roles. From entertaining children in a school as a therapy dog to keeping someone with disabilities or a medical condition safe, there are quite a few different ways your dog can lend a helping hand.

Hopefully, this article on how this intelligent breed can work as assistance dogs has been informative and helped you understand how a Cockapoo can do really well in these roles with proper training.