He's like an actual.. functioning cocker

[Leo0106]

Hey Leo! (My mentor)

Disappointed to hear you're losing your touch.
Just thought you'd like to know-Yesterday I annihilated an entire spacehopper.
Mummy just stood there with her mouth open.
You would've been proud.
Lots of love,

            Inca x 

Inca, leo wants to let you know he has certainly not lost his touch. Some days he lets his mum believe he's perfect and other days he decides to show his mum his devilish side 

I reckon he's learnt to pretend he's the perfect dog and wants to catch me off my guard when I least expect it... Like today for instance when I came home and the scent work items I had left safely on the kitchen table magically appeared on the floor when I got home. Or the other night when at 3am he had realised I had left the stair gate open and decided to wake me up by sitting on my face. But as you know this is a far cry from the naughtiness he would have previously gotten up too!!!

Anyone else come to realise as they get older that they are the master and other people mean nothing? I certainly find as Leo gets older that I can give him a stern 'NO!'  and he dares not to disobey. However my partner will say a stern no and leo will practically laugh in his face 

[Leo0106]

Thankyou mudmagnets I appreciate the idea I do wish it was as easy as popping him in another room here   

The only thing he really needs managing with regularly now is when we have guests round and food is involved!! He will still be a complete theif given half a chance.

Just wonder if giving him his own space to chill (like a crate) would be appropriate for when you have visitors and food around. When my sister comes to visit she is not really keen on sharing her edibles, (she's not keen on the dogs anyway  ) so I put them in the bedroom with a biscuit and chew... and everyone is happy, and I am not stressed by what might happen.

Yep we've certainly tried popping him in another room (or giving him an extra special chew to have!) And he ends up screaming the house down.
We are at a stage where I don't believe he would dare to jump up at the table. And we have found a pit stop works really well, he usually sits on his 'spot' when we eat on the sofa etc however if there's food being dished out the best course of action is to usually pop his lead on and ask him to 'pit it'. This means lay down and don't steal. This all works so wonderfully in practise and when there are 'dog people' around. It's when we have more...naive people around (mother in law) and she just wanders in with a bread roll in her hand that we have the issue.

I have learnt to not blame him for his flaws though. In my eyes, I always ensure people know the rules of food in the house, if they choose to ignore then that is their failing... It's not Leo's fault that he has a flaw. And he's come so far in other areas that I don't believe I ask much by asking people to follow one rule!

No of course not, it was just a suggestion that might help, as it does here. As you say he has come a long way.

[C_phillips]

Hi Leo,

Thats such a positive update, well done!

We are dealing with our own problematic Cocker - what kind of things did you do? He seems to be in a bit of a bad patch at the moment, a bit more snappy / guardy / anxious than he has been the last few months.

Feels like we take one step forward and 2 back sometimes. We've worked with 3 different trainers, none have been particually insightful!

[Leo0106]

Hi Leo,

Thats such a positive update, well done!

We are dealing with our own problematic Cocker - what kind of things did you do? He seems to be in a bit of a bad patch at the moment, a bit more snappy / guardy / anxious than he has been the last few months.

Feels like we take one step forward and 2 back sometimes. We've worked with 3 different trainers, none have been particually insightful!

Oh bless you, I think it's natural to always have some setbacks.
We tend to find our own lives affect the way Leo responds so if he ever reverts to old behaviours I take a step back and look at what might be going on in our lives to cause him anxiety. (a big trigger for us is my partner going away, he's military so leo has become quite anxious even if my partner packs a rucksack. Let alone goes away for a single night). And if he ever reverts back to his old ways, I too revert right back to basics in terms of training as well, I never see it as a failure if I have to take him back to basics and do things I would have done a year ago, in fact Leo seems to be relieved if I do.
In terms of snapping, aggressive behaviour, I have invested a lot of time into reading Leo's body language and using a hands off approach. Leo is never handled unnessessarily, for example,  if I need him to move away from an area, I call him away and make a different area look really appealing. If Leo lunges at me for any reason I use complete ignorance. Numerous times Leo has physically hurt me in the past, I tried to follow the good old tactic of shouting ouch! Or yelping, to which I have found Leo just gets even more excited. So now I just stay as silent as I can possibly stay and when he dosnt lunge again I will just stand and tell him 'back!' with a stern finger point and he will generally oblige. Ofcourse he dosnt follow this to the text book and pushes his luck but I cannot endorse using a hands off approach enough. We are at a point now that aside from getting s little over excited in playtime, Leo dosnt feel the need to snap at me in any incidence, however it's taken me nearly 3 years to build this trust, and with others he will still feel to anxious to be handled.

I was reflecting with my trainer the other day about how far Leo had come and she reminded me that no matter how far he comes, dogs still need consistency. So I always ensure we don't forget where we came from and keep a consistent approach at all times.