[Julie Clark]

Hello everyone,

My names Julie and I’m new to the forum! My husband, Darron, & I have been talking about a dog for a while but had been unable to settle on a breed. We were thinking about Golden Retrievers but the shedding concerned me, my own hair falls out at a ridiculous rate, and there’s also three cats in the house.

About 3 or 4 months ago my hubbie met a cockapoo owner by chance, got chatting, and returned home telling me I had to look into the breed. I think at this point his enthusiasm was solely based on the eager wagging tail of a young pup, and the promised land of cute low shedding dogs! I found the Google research a little frustrating, as it only supplied pretty basic information... and then I found this fabulous forum! It’s so addictive, I have been following the site daily ever since (which I know makes me sound like a scary stalker, but I promise I’m harmless! ).

Now we’re at a point where we’re happy with our decision, I’ve read a few training books, puppy books, researched training classes, dog groomers, dog friendly holidays etc etc, so I thought it was about time I actually joined the forum to thank you all for the information I’ve gathered which has helped us decide that a Cockapoo is the breed for us!

We visited JD earlier this week and are now officially on their waiting list for a Working Cocker x Miniature Poodle in Spring/Summer 2012. Cannot begin to tell you how excited I am, but I’m guessing you’ve all been there already!!

Look forward to speaking to you all over the long long wait until next spring/summer!

Julie xx

 

[wilfiboy]

hi Julie glad you came out of the closet to join us ... Gosh you've got an exciting wait a head... will enjoy following your search for your JD pup x

 

[flounder_1]

Welcome - but oh what a long wait you have in front of you! However spring is the ideal time to get a puppy (we got Lolly Easter weekend this year) as you'll welcome some mild weather when you are taking puppy outside every hour and frequently in between to go to the toilet!!! lol
I hope the time flies by for you xx

 

[Sezra]

Hi Julie and welcome! I look forward to hearing your puppy updates! You must be so excited!

 

[Cockapoodledoo]

Congratulations! Welcome Julie. What wonderful and exciting news ......how are you going to contain yourself until Spring / Summer next year?!!
I've just noticed that you're in Aldershot .... not too far from us at all.

Karen x

 

[embee]

Hi Julie, as a 'soon to be' cockapoo owner you would be welcome at any of the meets where you would get to see 15+ cockapoos together and see first hand the range of crosses, sizes, colours, temperaments etc.

 

[Julie Clark]

Thank you!

As cosy as the closet was, it was time to say hello! The wait will seem really long I'm sure, but in the meantime I get to research puppy stuff which will hopefully keep me amused. As a first time dog owner I'm trying to research as much as I can so I'm as prepared as possible.
I would love to come along to one of the poo fests to meet a variety of cockapoos, thats a great idea for a newbie like me. I'll chat to the hubbie and get it arranged.
And I had noticed that you were local to us Karen (Cockapoodledoo), and that you had two JD cockapoos to boot! Are you going to both the St Albans and Virginia Waters meets?

Julie xx

 

[Cockapoodledoo]

Thank you!

As cosy as the closet was, it was time to say hello! The wait will seem really long I'm sure, but in the meantime I get to research puppy stuff which will hopefully keep me amused. As a first time dog owner I'm trying to research as much as I can so I'm as prepared as possible.
I would love to come along to one of the poo fests to meet a variety of cockapoos, thats a great idea for a newbie like me. I'll chat to the hubbie and get it arranged.
And I had noticed that you were local to us Karen (Cockapoodledoo), and that you had two JD cockapoos to boot! Are you going to both the St Albans and Virginia Waters meets?

Julie xx

YES! It would be great to meet you at either .....or both!

Karen x

 

[sharplesfamily]

Hello Julie and Darron!

Congratulations!! Great decision!! And you sound exactly like my hubbie and I. My mum was going to get a cockapoo as she is allergic to dogs but ended up with a golden retriever!! Needless to say, her asthma is really bad now. Anyway, we looked up cockapoos and realised it was the dog for us - my mum's loss!!! We discovered this site and, like you, found it was a godsend. It has been invaluable.

So welcome! The time will fly. We had to wait for 6 mths and surfing this site passed the time nicely.

We'll be at the St Albans meet on Sunday so do come!!!!

Harri x

 

[ali-s.j.]

:welcome: Julie, another JD pup from Summer 11 here. Do you have any thoughts of what sort of colouring you'd like (many seem to change their minds when the pups arrive, although I said from the beginning I wanted a blonde) and do you have a preference for the *** of you pup? JD leavers '11 thread may be useful to you - photos of all the pups at @ 8/9 weeks, tells you who the mums and dads are and there are so many of us on here, you'll be able to see how the puppies grow up! JD also have a who's who page to show the pups growin into adulthood. Have fun getting organised, after Christmas the time will just fly

 

[Julie Clark]

Harri: You’re right, this site is a godsend, and oh my god it’s addictive. I guess some people have drugs, some have alcohol, I have ILoveMyCockapoo!! I was hoping that we’d be able to come to St. Albans on Sunday but we’ve got guests staying Saturday night and I’m not sure it’d be polite to kick them out that early. Doh. October the 9th is looking good tho!

Ali: We’ve no preference as to the *** of the dog really. Darron started off saying he wanted a blonde, and I was edging closer towards the darker Apricot. But since then we’ve meet a few chocolate brown, so to be honest we could come away with any colour.

I’ve been following the JD leavers 2011 thread and I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures as the pups grow. I found the whos who page on the JD website pretty handy too. Seems the end result is a little hard to predict, and the adult dogs can look totally different depending on the ‘hairstyle’ its cut into. Life is like a box of chocolates!

Can't wait,
Julie xx

 

[JoJo]

Hi Julie .. welcome to the forum ... yippy you are getting a cockapoo

Great choice of dog ....

 

[MillieDog]

Hi Julie
:welcome:
I found this forum after I got my Millie back in March. It would have been really great to find it first. But I have no regrets with Millie or a cockapoo (my first dog too). I did trawl google and had to dig quite hard to get all the info I needed.

But as my hubby was against getting a dog it took me 6 months convince him and therefore I had 6 months of research to keep me amused it all worked out splendidly.

I'll be at the St Albans and Surrey meet so hopefully see you at one of them, more likely the Surrey one from what you say. Unless you can drag your guests along too !!!

 

[Julie Clark]

Jojo - Yippy indeed! I have loved reading through your blog. 'Tis a fabulous read.

Julie - I'm so glad I found this forum before finding a puppy. None of the books are half as 'real life' as the experiences you can read about here. I'm quite lucky that hubbie is very keen on a cockapoo family member, the hesitation has been all me. My main worries were training, grooming, and our 3 cats!

 

[Cockapoodledoo]

Julie Merrist Wood College (Guildford) do a one day grooming course on grooming your own dog. They hold a course about once a term .... twice in the summer I think. With 2 Cockapoos now I'm booked on to 15th Oct session as grooming fees for two dogs will be prohibitive for me. A little investment in gear and instruction on how to go about it properly and I'll be saving money within a year tops.

It's probably best to do this sort of course when the adult coat has come through though, so 8 - 9 months down the line I reckon.

There's always plenty of advice on here too.

Karen xx

 

[Laura(L)Izzie]

I think my family had the same kind of discussion about what breed would be best, we also decided on cockapoo's and we brought Izzie home at the end of November just in time for her to play in the snow she loved it, we are expecting to bring a second cockapoo home at the end of October if the puppies are a colour we want, very excited! Although you have a very long wait ahead of you! I'm sure you're excited though, cockapoos are amazing, but be warned, they are VERY clever... good luck & enjoy