I am rather surprised the article does not mention the shared hunting technique of pursuing prey until exhaustion as a possible link.
Many hunter gather tribes apparently employed this technique and it can still be found today in Africa with the San people.
Sharing food or stealing wolf puppies were probably part of the domestication but was this because humans possibly hunted alongside wolves? Humans possibly being capable of pursuing for longer distances due to better body temperature control through sweating while wolves being better at tracking.
At least that would be my take.