What is a Mini Cavapoo, and how is it different from a Toy?

What does mini mean on a Cavapoo?

It points to a Miniature Poodle in the family tree. Only purebreds have official sizes, so nobody has ever written down what a Mini Cavapoo or a Toy Cavapoo should be. Breeders took the words from the Poodle, because the Poodle is the parent breed that comes in more than one size.

Poodle sizes are measured at the highest point of the shoulders. Up to 10 inches makes a Toy, anything from just over 10 to 15 inches makes a Miniature, and a taller Poodle is a Standard. Apart from height the three are the same breed, so when the word is used properly it describes the size of the Poodle parent and nothing more.

How is a Toy Cavapoo different from a Mini?

A Toy Cavapoo has a Toy Poodle behind it, and a Toy Poodle is a much smaller dog. A Toy weighs 4 to 6 pounds and a Miniature 10 to 15, so the Poodle in a Toy cross brings far less size to the litter than the Poodle in a Mini cross.

The Cavalier side stays the same either way. A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel comes in one size, 12 to 13 inches and 13 to 18 pounds, and it's already counted as a toy breed. The Toy Poodle is a toy breed too, while the Miniature Poodle isn't. So a first-generation Mini Cavapoo has one toy parent and a Toy Cavapoo has two, which is a tidy way to remember which one is smaller.

What decides whether a Cavapoo turns out mini?

The size of its actual parents, and above all the Poodle's. In a first-generation Cavapoo, one parent is a Cavalier and the other a Poodle, so the Poodle's size settles a good part of the question. An F1B is bred back to a Poodle and is about three quarters Poodle, which makes that Poodle's size count for even more.

A label still can't fix the outcome, which is why each of our puppy pages carries its own estimate, worked out from that puppy's own mama and papa. Our guide to how big a Cavapoo gets covers the parent breeds' sizes in full, along with when growth stops, and our F1B Cavapoo explainer goes through the generation letters.

How do you read a breeder's mini or toy label?

Treat it as a starting point and ask for the numbers behind it. Since neither word has an official meaning, a few plain questions tell you far more than the label does.

• Ask which size of Poodle the Poodle parent is, and how tall it stands at the shoulder, since Poodle sizes go by height.
• Ask what both parents weigh, because a grown parent is the best preview of a grown puppy.
• Ask whether the puppy is an F1 or an F1B, which tells you how much Poodle is in its family tree.
• Ask what grown weight the breeder expects for that particular puppy, and how they arrived at it.

Two breeders can both write Mini and mean dogs of quite different sizes, so compare the expected weights rather than the words. If a listing gives a label and no weight, it's fair to ask for one.

How big do our Mini Cavapoos get?

Going by the puppies on our site now, our Mini Cavapoos are expected to grow to 15 to 20 lbs and our F1B Cavapoos to 13 to 15 lbs. The papa of our F1B Cavapoo litters is a Miniature Poodle, and every puppy's page gives its own estimate next to the names of both its parents.

An estimate is our best judgment from the parents, and the limits on what we can promise about size are set out on our health guarantee page. If a puppy toward the small end of the range would suit you best, mention it on your application, and we'll weigh that when we go through the litter with you. Every Mini Cavapoo we have now is on the Cavapoo page, and the F1B puppies have a page of their own.