Two very old companion breeds, crossed
The Peekapoo is a Pekingese crossed with a Poodle, and it is one of the older deliberate crosses in the country. American breeders were producing them in the 1950s, decades before anyone thought to give a planned mixed pairing a name of its own. That head start shows. The Peekapoo has had long enough to settle into a recognisable type, and people who have lived with one usually know exactly what they are coming back for.
Both parents were bred for the same job, which is most of the reason the cross works as well as it does.
The Pekingese is Chinese and genuinely ancient — a palace dog of the imperial court, kept purely as a companion for centuries before it reached the West in the 1860s. Everything about it was selected for company: the broad flat face, the enormous dark eyes, the heavy mane around the shoulders, the deliberate rolling walk, and a self-possession that has been compared to a lion’s since the beginning. A Pekingese was never asked to work a field or move a flock. It was asked to be present, and it is very good at it.
The Poodle came the other way round. It began in Germany as a water retriever — the name traces back to pudeln, to splash — and was refined in France into the dog everyone pictures, then bred down into Miniature and Toy sizes for people who wanted the same brain and the same curly coat in a smaller frame. The Toy Poodle brings the curl, the quick mind, and the habit of watching your face for the next instruction.
Put the two together and you get a small dog with the Pekingese’s devotion and the Poodle’s cleverness, a combination people have been happily living with for seventy years.
Size, coat and colour
Most Peekapoos stand somewhere around eight to eleven inches at the shoulder and weigh from about four pounds to twenty, with the majority landing in the middle of that range. Where a particular puppy finishes depends mostly on which size of Poodle stands behind the litter, so the parents tell you more than any chart will.
The build sits between the two sides. The body is a shade longer than it is tall, the bone is heavier than you expect from something this size, and the head keeps some of the Pekingese roundness — a shorter muzzle, a broad forehead, and large dark eyes that are the first thing most people comment on. The ears hang, and they carry feathering.
The coat is where littermates differ most. Some come out with soft waves, some with a definite curl, and some with a longer, straighter fall closer to the Pekingese side. All three are Peekapoos. Length runs medium to long, the texture is soft rather than harsh, and the coat grows continuously, which is what makes the trim length your decision rather than the dog’s.
Colour covers a wide range: cream and apricot, silver and grey, black, white, sable, chocolate, and parti-colours where white carries clear patches of another shade. Many puppies lighten or deepen as they mature, so the shade you see at eight weeks is a starting point rather than a finished answer.
The temperament people come back for
A Peekapoo is a companion dog in the full sense of the phrase, and it takes the job seriously. This is a dog that changes rooms when you do, sits on the arm of the chair while you read, and stations itself in the bathroom doorway rather than lose sight of you for four minutes.
That devotion arrives with an opinion attached. The Pekingese side brings dignity and a mind of its own; the Poodle side brings the mischief. What you get is a small dog that is both affectionate and funny. Peekapoos stay playful well into adulthood and they are good at inventing their own games — a toy pushed under the sofa becomes a twenty-minute project with commentary.
They notice things. A Peekapoo will let you know when someone comes to the door and then, once you have handled it, go back to whatever it was doing. With their own people they are warm and demonstrative. With visitors they usually take a moment to size things up and then join in.
They are easy company for other pets as well. A Peekapoo raised alongside a cat or another small dog generally treats them as part of the furniture, and calm, unhurried introductions in the first weeks set the tone for years.
What a day with one looks like
Mornings begin with a small dog already sitting on the end of the bed, waiting for evidence that you are conscious.
The walk is short and social. Two modest outings across the day suit most Peekapoos, with plenty of stopping to inspect things and be admired. Their size makes them portable — a Peekapoo will happily do a farmers’ market, a patio lunch or a long car ride — and that portability is a large part of why people choose the cross in the first place.
The middle of the day is the part both parent breeds were built for. Expect a dog on your feet while you cook, against your leg on the sofa, and asleep somewhere it can still hear you.
Afternoons want a bit of brain work, and this is where the Poodle side pays out. A snuffle mat, a food puzzle, five minutes of trick practice, a treat hidden under one of three cups. A Peekapoo can be thoroughly entertained without leaving the room, and thinking work satisfies a clever small dog more than distance does.
Evenings are the lap, and that is not a figure of speech.
Grooming, and how the routine really works
The coat grows rather than turning over with the seasons, so the routine is regular and light rather than occasional and heavy.
A comb through three or four times a week is the heart of it: a metal comb with medium and fine teeth, worked right down to the skin behind the ears, under the front legs and along the trousers, where the coat is finest. Five to ten minutes with the dog on your lap covers it, and a puppy taught early that combing means attention will settle into it for life.
Most owners then book a groomer every six to eight weeks. The trim is entirely a matter of taste: a short, easy all-over clip, a puppy cut with a little length left on the legs, or a longer coat kept the way it grows. Shorter means less combing between visits, longer means more, and both are completely normal.
The face is worth thirty seconds of the same session — a damp cloth around the eyes and muzzle keeps everything clean and tidy. Nails every few weeks, and you will hear them on a hard floor when they are due. Teeth brushed as a matter of routine, started young enough that the puppy decides the toothbrush is a game. Ears wiped out whenever you comb.
Training a clever small dog
Peekapoos learn quickly and work for food, which makes the mechanics of training the easy part. The trick is deciding early what you want, because a small clever dog picks up the accidental lessons just as fast as the deliberate ones.
Keep sessions short — three to five minutes, several times a day, finishing while the dog still wants more. Sit, come, wait and a settle on a mat cover almost everything ordinary life asks for. Tricks are where the cross shows off: spin, paw, weave through your legs and go-to-bed all come fast, and a Peekapoo performing for an audience will keep going as long as the audience does.
House-training runs on a schedule rather than a signal. A crate, a fixed routine, and going outside with the puppy so you can pay the right thing in the right place. Small dogs have small bladders, so keep the trips frequent and think in months rather than weeks.
Teach time alone the way you teach anything else: in tiny, cheerful doses from the first week, with a chew to work on and no ceremony on the way out or the way back in. A puppy that learns early that you always come back grows into an adult who treats your coat and keys as unremarkable.
Socialisation is the other long-term investment. New floors, lifts, umbrellas, calm adult dogs, traffic noise, being handled by someone who is not you. Small dogs get carried past a great deal of the world, and the ones who meet it on their own four feet grow up steady.
Coming to meet the Peekapoo puppies
A photograph cannot tell you what a Peekapoo’s coat feels like, and littermates vary more than any picture suggests — one curly, one wavy, one a shade lighter than it will be in a year. Personality turns up in the first two minutes on the floor.
Our Peekapoo puppies come from our network of licensed breeders, and our team can tell you what a particular puppy’s parents were like, which is the best guide there is to both size and coat. We have a store in Orlando and one in Nashville, and you are welcome to sit with a puppy for as long as you like before deciding anything. Find directions and hours, and ask about financing while you are here. Every puppy here goes home with its vet records, its vaccination history and a health warranty, and our team will walk you through what those cover.