ARE DOODLES REALLY WORSE BEHAVED THAN PUREBREDS?
- Emily
- Mar 20
- 6 min read
A new Royal Veterinary College (RVC) study says Cockapoos, Cavapoos, and Labradoodles have more behavioural problems than their purebred parent breeds. But the headlines are only telling half the story - and if you own a Doodle, you deserve the full picture.
"Doodles are worse behaved than purebreds."
You've probably seen that headline by now. It's everywhere. And if you're sat there with your Cockapoo on the sofa wondering what the hell you've done wrong - take a breath. The real story is a lot more nuanced than the clickbait suggests.
A major new study from the Royal Veterinary College, published in PLOS ONE, looked at 9,402 dogs and compared three of the UK's most popular designer crossbreeds - Cockapoos, Cavapoos, and Labradoodles - against their purebred parent breeds (Cocker Spaniels, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Labrador Retrievers, and Poodles).
So what did they actually find? And more importantly, what didn't they look at?
JUMP TO SECTION
WHAT THE STUDY FOUND
The researchers used something called the C-BARQ - a detailed behaviour questionnaire that's been used in studies worldwide. It covers 12 areas including aggression, fear, excitability, separation problems, and trainability.
The results:
Designer crossbreeds showed more undesirable behaviours in 44.4% of comparisons - and fewer in only 9.7%
Cockapoos scored worse in 16 out of 24 behavioural measures, including aggression towards their owners, aggression towards strangers, and excitability
Cavapoos scored worse in 11 out of 24, including separation problems, excitability, and fear of other dogs
Labradoodles came out best of the three - worse in 5 areas but actually better than Poodles in 6, including lower levels of aggression
Those numbers are real. The study is solid. But every news outlet has reported those findings and stopped there.
Nobody's asking the harder questions.
THESE WERE PANDEMIC PUPPIES
There's a detail buried in the methodology that changes the context of everything above.
The dogs in this study were all acquired from January 2019 onward. The survey ran between February and April 2023. So this sample is dominated by pandemic and post-pandemic puppies - bought during the biggest puppy boom the UK has ever seen.
During COVID, the percentage change in demand for designer breeds in some regions of the UK was approx. 130%. The study mentions this but doesn't account for it in the analysis.
That matters because the boom didn't just bring more puppies - it brought a whole mess of problems with it.
A BREED PROBLEM OR A BREEDING PROBLEM
When demand for anything goes through the roof, dodgy suppliers crawl out of the woodwork.
Puppies are no different.
During COVID, puppy farms and backyard breeders were churning out litters with zero health testing, no early socialisation, and puppies taken from their mums far too early.
Doodles specifically can't be Kennel Club registered. There are no breed club standards, no required health screenings, no real oversight. Good Doodle breeders absolutely exist - but the barrier to breeding them badly is basically zero. Anyone with two dogs and a spare room can have a go.
The study didn't record where the dogs came from.
Licensed breeder, puppy farm, someone's back garden were all lumped together. The only thing they checked was whether the puppy was seen with its mum at collection.
We already know from earlier RVC research that people buying designer crossbreeds are more likely to put down a deposit without seeing the puppy first and less likely to see their pup with its mum or littermates. Those are massive red flags for puppy farming.
And dogs from puppy farms consistently show higher rates of fear, aggression, and separation problems. The exact behaviours this study flagged.
So is this about the dogs themselves, or about where they came from and how they were bred? The study can't tell us. That's a big gap.
NOTHING ON SOCIALISATION
The study measured 12 different behaviour categories but asked zero questions about early socialisation. Nothing about puppy classes, nothing about what experiences these dogs had in those first crucial weeks.
These are pandemic puppies. Many were raised during lockdowns when no puppy classes were running and limited visitors were coming to the house. These puppies had barely any exposure to other dogs, traffic, children, or the everyday world that puppies need to meet while they're young.
That window between roughly 3 and 16 weeks is when your puppy's brain is building its picture of what's normal and what's not. Miss it, and you're playing catch-up for years.
Poor early socialisation is one of the biggest predictors of fear, anxiety, and aggression in adult dogs. We've known this for decades. And for a generation of puppies that had some of the worst socialisation opportunities in living memory, the study didn't capture any of it.
THE OWNER EXPERIENCE QUESTIONS
The study's own demographics are also worth a closer look:
60.5% of designer crossbreed owners were first-time dog owners - compared to 33.7% for purebred owners
Only 4.9% of Doodle owners worked with animals professionally - vs 12.1% of purebred owners
Designer crosses were more likely to live in homes with children
Not surprising, really. Doodles are marketed as the perfect family dog - easy-going, hypoallergenic, great with kids. Of course first-time owners gravitate towards them.
But all the behavioural data in this study is owner-reported. Owners filled in the questionnaires about their own dogs which leaves some important questions hanging:
Are these dogs genuinely harder to live with?
Or are first-time owners less equipped to handle normal dog behaviour - mouthing, jumping up, barking at the postman?
Are less experienced owners more likely to see everyday puppy stuff as a "problem"?
Did first-time owners do less early training and socialisation, simply because they didn't know how important it was?
The researchers controlled for age and neuter status. But they didn't control for owner experience or training methods. When your data depends on owners reporting their own dog's behaviour, that's a pretty significant thing to leave out.
OTHER GAPS WORTH NOTING
Generation of cross: An F1 Cockapoo (one Cocker Spaniel parent, one Poodle parent) is genetically very different from an F2 or multigen Cockapoo. The study grouped them all together.
Environment: Nothing on whether dogs lived in a flat or a house with a garden, how much exercise they got, how long they were left alone. All of these affect behaviour.
Breeding lines: No way to separate a dog from a careful, health-tested litter and one from a puppy farm. In the data, they look the same.
WHAT THIS STUDY ACTUALLY TELLS US
I want to be fair. This is a good study. It's large, it uses a well-respected behaviour tool, and the Royal Veterinary College does brilliant work. The findings are real and they matter.
But "Doodles are worse behaved!" isn't the takeaway.
What this study shows us is what happens when the most in-demand dogs in the country get bred at ridiculous scale during a crisis, often by people who had no business breeding anything, and then go to owners with the least experience and the least support, during a time when proper socialisation was nearly impossible.
That's not a breed failing. That's a system failing.
HOW THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ANY BREED
If Labrador demand doubled overnight and puppy farms rushed to fill the gap, we'd see the same problems. Popularity and poor breeding is the issue, not the Poodle cross.
And if you're a Doodle owner reading this feeling like you're being got at - you're not. Your dog isn't broken. But the system that bred and sold many of these dogs let them down before they ever got to you.
What every dog needs:
A breeder who health tests, raises their puppies properly, and cares about where they end up
An owner who does their research before choosing a breed or crossbreed
Early socialisation during that critical 3–16 week window
Consistent, reward-based training from day one
Realistic expectations - no breed is plug and play
If you've got a Doodle and things feel hard right now, you're not alone. Get in touch and let's see how I can help. You can book a free 30 minute call with me by clicking here.
REFERENCES
Bryson, G.T., O'Neill, D.G., Belshaw, Z., Brand, C.L., & Packer, R.M.A. (2026). Comparing undesirable behaviours between 'designer' Poodle-cross dogs and their purebred progenitor breeds. PLOS ONE. Read the full study
Packer, R.M.A., Brand, C.L., Belshaw, Z., Mayeux, S., & Pegram, C.L. (2022). Pandemic Puppies: Demographic characteristics, health and early life experiences of puppies acquired during the 2020 phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Animals. Read the study
Mayeux, S., Packer, R.M.A., Brand, C.L., & Belshaw, Z. (2022). How much is that doodle in the window? Exploring motivations and behaviours of UK owners acquiring designer crossbreed dogs (2019-2020). Canine Medicine and Genetics. Read the study
Royal Veterinary College. Boom in designer dogs creates the perfect storm for animal welfare issues. Read the article
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