Proper ear care may be one of the most important parts of grooming your cockapoo.  Both cockers and poodles contribute a lot of hair around and in the ear canal. Without proper air flow the ear came become a breeding ground for a manner of fungal and bacterial growth, especially for those cockapoos with a fondness and access to water.

A pair of clippers or blunt nosed scissors may be used to keep the hair under the ear short. This may be done in a manner that will not affect to dogs looks while allowing some air flow. When using scissors be careful to trim parallel to the ear and not toward the ear in case your cockapoo gets a sudden urge to shake their head.

Removing the hair from the ear canal is a lot easier than it sounds and when learned as a pup that it is part of normal care should never be a problem despite the minor amount of discomfort that it would seem is involved.  There are powders that help with grasping the hair to pull it that may or may not be of much help. Grab small amounts of the hair that is growing out of the ear canal itself with your fingers or a pair of rounded nose tweezers or forceps and pull.  Grabbing a big chunk of hair will be more painful and harder to pull just as a fistful of your own hair versus a few strands at a time. Carefully remove all the hair you can see. Use a light to see well into the ear.

If there is a waxy dark colored build up you may want to consider ear mites as a possibility and get a treatment for same. There are many ear mite products on the market available in most pet supply catalogs.

The old adage of using a cute tip or cotton ball to get as much dirt out as you can may actually have detrimental side effects.  Loosened dirt may fall further into the ear canal and  be impacted by further probing trying to get it out. A better course is to acquire an ear syringe ( available at any drug store and most pet supply catalogs) to flush dirt out of the ear.  For waxy dirt a good grease cutting dishwashing detergent such as Dawn will cut through the build up. For ear mites a flea shampoo may be of great help.
In any case put warm water into the ear and a few drops of your chosen shampoo and thoroughly massage the base of the ear. Flush liberally using the ear syringe and repeat until you get NO dirt coming out of the ears.  Allow the dog to shake their head between flushing to help throw out any debris in the ear. You may then allow the your cockapoo to dry naturally or use any swimmers ear mixture that aids in drying the ear.

If there appears to be any minor infection - a little rubbing alcohol poured in the ear and massaged in ( not painful unless there are fresh open sores ) as a disinfectant and drying agent will help. Be careful to not get any in the dogs eyes.

A quick check of your dogs ears should be part of your regular grooming ( between haircuts ) procedure.  Any unusual odor is cause for further investigation. Otherwise the hair removal and cleaning process need not be done more often than normal grooming ( haircut time ).