Oh, my. You don’t know what you are missing...... though Golden’s are wonderful dogs, too... just easier to have a lot of cockers at one time because of size... just look for a reputable breeder, it’s poor breeders that gave cockers a bad reputation... a well bred cocker is to love forever.
I echo what AZCarolyn said: poor cocker breeders have ruined the breed in general. There are tons of puppy millers in the cocker world thanks to their popularity due to movies like ‘Lady and the Tramp’, etc.
If you’re not going to get an adult dog from a shelter (which is always my first recommendation), then no matter what the breed, you have to research and find a good, ethical breeder. But some breeds have a higher percentage of bad breeders due to their popularity as a breed.
In general, if you go to the AKC website and look up the statistics to see how many of each breed are registered each year, the higher up the list (i.e., the more popular), the higher the percentage of puppy millers and backyard-breeders. Getting a puppy from either of those sources is a recipe for extensive, expensive, and potentially deadly health problems, not to mention temperament problems.
So as AZCarolyn says, if you ever get a Cocker, find a good breeder. And of course knowing the definition of a “good breeder” takes research in itself. :-)