When I was growing up, Saturday morning was for cartoons and donuts. Almost every week there was one doughnut left and two kids who wanted it. Mom didn't like taking crap for not cutting it perfectly in half from her child who had second choice on his half.

She developed the instant conflict resolution. I had to cut, Corey got to choose.

The same principal can be used to determine the value of a dog or anything else owned 50/50. One thing you absolutely must keep in mind is that your half of the dog is never worth more than your partner's half. I don't care if you put the training in and he just bought the birds. That was your arrangement going in, it's not working, and now it's time to break the relationship. Each of you owns half. The left half is not worth more than the right half.

So flip a coin or figure some way to find out who has to "cut." The cutter writes on a piece of paper the total value of the dog in DOLLARS and hands it to the other person. The chooser has two choices, buy or sell. He can elect to give half that cash to the cutter and get the whole dog, or receive half that amount in exchange for half the dog.

A similar approach can be made with a three-way partnership as well, but maybe you have to do it twice to get down to one owner (if that's desirable).