My 2 year old cocker spaniel - top dog behaviour

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My male cocker spaniel , has started with some dominant , behaviours like sitting higher in the sofa cushions , jumping on anyone’s seat before they sit down , barking at food if it’s left on the side on the kitchen and also when out waking being rooted to the spot if he wants to go another way ,,?

there’s 5 of us in the house (3 teenage DC’s) looking after him , so we may struggle with consistency, ?

Can anyone tell me what we can do to discourage this kind of behaviour,?

TIA

The alpha/pack/dominance theory has been debunked - he's not doing these behaviours because he's thinks he's the boss. He's doing them because he's a cheeky monkey and can get away with it ;)

You definitely need to work with the whole family on the consistency thing. You need to reward the behaviour you want when he does it.

For example, if he's on the sofa and you want him down, you make the floor and a toy a MUCH more exciting place to be and give him loads of excitement when he's there. Chances are he's learnt that being all over the sofa means he gets loads more attention from people and that's great! He doesn't realise the attention is people telling him off or telling him to get down, he just sees it as attention. So when he's on the floor where you want him to be, you give him loads of attention and play time, as soon as he's on the back sofa, it's monotone and boring, humans barely even look at him, that's no fun.

There's lots of little training tips here:
www.dogstrust.org.uk/help-advice/training/

Agree with @bunnygeek. If you see these behaviours as dominance you are never going to fix the problems because it is not a dominance issue.

behaviours like sitting higher in the sofa cushions positively reinforce getting down on command.
jumping on anyone’s seat before they sit down this sounds to me like he's trying to instigate play
barking at food if it’s left on the side on the kitchen no idea how you deal with this. Does he sometimes get fed nice bits from the kitchen?
when out waking being rooted to the spot if he wants to go another way? Treat it the same way as teaching a dog not to pull on the leash - quickly change direction-be interesting and exciting.

None of that has anything to do with dominance or him wanting to be the 'top dog'. Dogs behave the way they do because they get something out of it, not because they want to dominate us.

like sitting higher in the sofa cushions - he does this because it's comfortable.
jumping on anyone’s seat before they sit down - again, he does this because it's comfortable and he wants to sit in the warm spot.
barking at food if it’s left on the side on the kitchen - because he wants the food. I suspect someone has fed him when he barks so he now barks to get food.
and also when out waking being rooted to the spot if he wants to go another way - that's just him showing you what he wants to do. And I suspect you get fed up of trying to get him to move, so you give in :)

there’s 5 of us in the house (3 teenage DC’s) looking after him , so we may struggle with consistency,? - yes, I suspect this is an issue.

Dogs need consistency. If you don't want him to be on the sofa - make the floor a great place to be. Give him treats and chews on the floor. Give him a comfortable bed and warm blankets. Give him fuss and attention and positive things on the floor. If he gets on the sofa - just ignore him and tell him to get down. Don't give him any other attention.

If he barks at food in the kitchen, stop leaving food on the sides. It's a HUGE temptation for a dog and not really fair to expect him to just ignore it. Set him up for success by keeping temptation out of his way.

On walks, I always (within reason) let my dog choose the direction we go in - it's his walk, not mine. If you need him to go a certain way, then use positive encouragement or treats to entice him.