Toy Play: Cooperation without Conflict

Toys can serve many purposes, from daily enrichment to high-value rewards. Appropriate, cooperative toy play and sharing skills are easy to teach during early puppyhood, and many of the same concepts can be applied to sharing food and other resources. Equally important to the method shown in this video is the concept that we should generally be reliable borrowers, not takers. When our puppies drop a medium-value toy to take a high-value treat, we also resume toy play after the treat! Soon enough, our puppies will be spitting out high-value toys for low-value kibble, and then for nothing at all, knowing that toy play will probably resume in a moment. Similarly, if you generally take a puppy's food bowl only to sprinkle cheese and return it, then she will have a vastly different emotional response to you approaching her food than a puppy whose owner routinely removes his food while he's eating!