Hi, I'm Mark McCabe.

Across four decades of training dogs, I’ve reinvented my training more times than I can count.

I started out in the corrections-and-punishment world. Later, as I learned more about how dogs actually feel and think, reward-based work became the cornerstone of my training. Added to that, high level, specific training of relaxation as a skill and, these days, I wear the “cookie tosser” title proudly.

That hasn’t put me into some fantasy world where there is never a good purpose for the planned use of aversives, but it has shrunk that down to a very small space.

But here’s something I’ve noticed:

When trainers talk about food, they almost always talk about behavior.
How to get the dog to do something.

How to reinforce the task.

Very few talk about using food to change a dog’s emotional experience.

And some even say you shouldn’t do that.

This mini-course is my answer to that.

I’ll be showing you exactly how I used food—with a dog on death row who came to me with reactivity, aggression, and resource guarding—to shift his emotional state in one of the most pivotal moments of his life. He was considered beyond help. He had already been scheduled for euthanasia. TBTE and I were his last chance.

You’ll see the actual footage of the first day I met him, and I’ll walk you through every decision, every choice, and what I was trying to accomplish emotionally—not behaviorally.

If you want to understand rewards on a deeper level, or you’ve ever questioned how and why we use food with struggling dogs, join me. This is a very different conversation.

Join us on December 18th at 7pm Eastern for a special 2-hour training and Q&A where Mark will share a rarely discussed, rule-breaking way of using food in training—and why it can change everything for emotionally struggling dogs.

This mini course includes:
✓ A deep dive into Mark’s unconventional use of food
✓ Step-by-step breakdowns of the real case that inspired this training
✓ Never-before-seen footage from the first day Mark worked with a dog considered beyond help
✓ Live Q&A so you can ask anything
✓ Replay access for all registrants

If you’ve ever wondered when (and why) to break the “food rules,” this event will show you how doing so can save a dog’s life.