It absolutely is frustrating to discover you've been misled...
When we got Honey, we didn't know that there were working and show cockers, we just thought a cocker spaniel was a cocker spaniel...
The breeder didn't mention anything about working cockers, though at one point she did say that she could have got them docked, as the sire's owner had a gun license...
But to actually deliberately mislead you is far worse - changing the FT CH to SH CH is actually fraud...
Honey is 3/4 Working, and to be honest, I wouldn't change her for the world.
She is very clever, so we do constantly have to think about ways in which she can use her brain - we do a lot of clicker training and we do obedience and agility lessons. But I think one of the very simple things we did from an early age was to put her biscuit in something (loo roll inner or envelope) so she had to work to get it out...
With any dog, good recall is very important, but I think more so with a cocker with working blood, as if recall isn't fully in-grained they could easily go deaf when they get a good scent to follow. I don't use a whistle with Honey, but we did work very hard at recall, and I can pretty much recall her from anything...
And while Honey could go all day when out and about, she is very chilled in the house...
Enjoy Poppy