Sharing a chew with your puppy, and teaching them how to receive it and give it calmly is an essential skill to get in place early on. Building on the touch imprint, and expanding on conflict resolution principles builds a solid foundation to prevent guarding issues further along the line.

This activity has several benefits - the first of which is that puppies learn to get comfortable with having your hands around their mouths when they are holding and chewing objects. Resource Guarding is at its core a relationship issue, and comes from an unhealthy relationship with touch, space, and competition for objects of value. By practicing sharing activities, we can eliminate these problems before they become an issue.

Be sure to check out our video on Conflict Resolution, in which we explore similar, complementary skills.