What to do with a spaniel named Leon?

Almost every time I think about Leon, that song from the sound of music pops into my head  "How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?" but of course it includes the name Leon instead of Maria.  :)      Leon has a misadventure pretty much every day.   And if I'm lucky, we get multiple misadventures.

Today I was sitting on the couch watching "Behind the Music" about Nelly ... who can resist BTM??    I had a couple of dogs around me and Leon showed up, chomping on something.   No big deal - that's pretty standard for this puppy boy.    But when I bothered to glance over I noticed he had one of my work shoes in his mouth.   UGH   These are "dress up" Crocs which are not cheap shoes.    ugh ugh ugh    I think they might be ok to keep around as dress down shoes, but they definitely can not see the inside of the office building in Westport anymore.    Here's the end result of Leon's work.

Just now I was cleaning up the kitchen and had a couple of apples to throw out.    They're not rotten, but they're close to soft which I  don't like so the squirrels were going to have some apples for dinner.  However,  I accidentally knocked over the bag they were in and a couple toppled to the floor.   I didn't think anything of it and picked the apples up.    APPARENTLY I missed one ... one that dear boy Leon found.    Leon and TRex have kind of passed it back and forth nibbling on it ... I figure it's pretty healthy so I let them at it.   Here's Leon snacking away.   He's made a terrible mess of the futon in the computer area - but I guess that's why I keep an extra sheet on it.    I just turned around and now Suzie is snacking on it - since apples are fine for dogs in moderation, hey go for it kids!   Why do I think if I offered them all a piece of apple they wouldn't be nearly as thrilled as having scavenged one?  :)

My favorite misadventure Leon had this weekend was last night.   I was lying on my bed ready for snoozeville, but waiting for JTK to finish a certain section of his Pokemon game so I could see him off to bed and read some more of our current book "Dormia"  (It's ok ... just a really tough read aloud book with so many fantasy names and places - try saying "Dragoonya"  and "Resuza" and "Barsh-Yin-Binder" repeatedly  haha.)    Anyway, we're all relaxing and I'm watching TV.   Leon jumps on my bed and he's chewing something - I again did not pay attention to what it was.    Suddenly I hear this loud spraying and there's wet crap everywhere!  He had gotten one of my Bath and Body Works home-scent cans and punctured it with his teeth.    It scared the crap out of me but even more it scared the crap out of Leon - he ran and hid behind me! :)   I can not get that smell out of my nose - even though it's a "good" smell it's still a strong smell and one you're supposed to use sparingly ...  not an entire can at once.

I did take Leon outside to start trying to train him.    I am very close to getting him to learn "sit" after a very short time.    From what I know, you can't spend too much time at once training a dog - it needs to be in short spurts so we were only outside about 5 minutes.    He's very food motivated and he's very smart so hopefully we're on our way to getting a well behaved boy out of this.   If not, I'm probably going to ask the group to cover some training lessons for this dear boy.    I know I act like he's terrible ... well he really is. ;)   Nah - he's just a very energetic and happy Cocker Spaniel.  I fostered one other male cocker and I was relieved when he got adopted.   He constantly got into fights with the other dogs so I'm happy to say Leon does not do that.   And I have to admit, he reminds me a lot of JTK.   He's a happy go lucky guy and not really looking at the consequences of his actions, just the satisfaction of his immediate desires.   :)