We’ve all been there. You go to visit your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker, etc., and then before you even walk in the door you hear it. Barking. Growling. Lots of anxious movement.

Dealing with an anxious and aggressive dog is scary and, for the owners, can be a bit embarrassing. Barring the invention of a time machine that would allow you to go back in time to when your dog was 6-12 weeks old to focus on behavioral training (which is what Oscar E. Chavez, DVM, MBA, Member of the American Academy of Veterinary Nutrition, says he likes to first suggest), there are a few specific things you can do to try to help curb your pooch’s bad (and oftentimes dangerous) behavior.

“Aggressive dogs, if truly aggressive, usually require professional behavior modification, and the attention of a trainer or professional,” says Dr. Chavez. “This doesn’t mean you need to work with them at all times, but it does mean that they need to be a part of the behavior modification program.”

The key when dealing with aggressive dogs is to identify which type of aggression your dog is exhibiting, and then develop an appropriate strategy to reverse it. “This process can take days, weeks, months or even years,” says Dr. Chavez. “But if done right, it can be effective over 90 percent of the time. Truly ‘evil’ dogs are rare, and most of the time it’s poor socialization or training during puppyhood that leads to problems.”

When it comes to training, the key is to ignore bad behavior (provided it’s not immediately threatening), and reward good behavior with attention. “Negative attention is still attention, so yelling and shouting your dog’s name when it’s lunging and growling may only fuel the problem,” says Dr. Chavez.

One common technique that helps in the initial stages is what Dr. Chavez called the ‘invisible dog’ technique. “This is where you literally are instructed to ignore the dog completely, except for only feeding and potty walks for two weeks,” he said. “Even during these allowable interactions, you are instructed to avoid eye contact and be very cold to the dog.”

Dogs who are being given the ‘invisible dog’ technique typically go through a mourning phase, where they miss the attention and affection of their pet parent so much that they become open to training and to being very cooperative. After this period, the dog’s behavior is usually better modified. “Invisible dog is tough, because the last thing we want to do is ignore a pet we love,” says Dr. Chavez. “But it must be adhered to very consistently for it to work, and when it fails, it’s usually our fault for giving in.”If your dog’s aggressive behavior worries you, Dr. Chavez suggests checking out The Animal Behavior Network as a great place to start for advice.

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Few things are more adorable—or destructive—than a new puppy. When they pee on rugs, chew furniture, and get aggressive with other pups, their stressed-out owners usually turn to dog training. Now, a novel study suggests programs that use even relatively mild punishments like yelling and leash-jerking can stress dogs out, making them more “pessimistic” than dogs that experience reward-based training.

“[Punishment] training may seem to work in the short run … but these methods can have future negative consequences,” says Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder who was not involved in the new study. “[These dogs are] living in perpetual stress.”

Previous studies have suggested that although both reward-based and punishment-based training methods are effective, punishment-based training can have negative effects. But those studies tend to focus on police and laboratory dogs instead of family pets, and most used shock collars, which have been banned in several countries, as punishment.

To find out how companion dogs react to more routine punishments, scientists led by Ana Catarina Vieira de Castro at the University of Porto in Portugal recruited 42 dogs from reward-based training schools, which use food or play to encourage good behaviors. The team also enlisted 50 dogs from aversive-based programs, which use negative reinforcement like yelling and leash jerking to train dogs, or even pressuring their rumps to get them to sit.

The researchers videotaped the dogs during training and tested their saliva before and after for the stress hormone cortisol. Dogs in the negative reinforcement programs showed more stress-related behaviors during training, such as lip licking and yawning, and they had higher levels of cortisol in their saliva than when at home, the team reports on the preprint server bioRxiv. Dogs in the reward-based training group showed no changes in cortisol levels during training or at home.

To find out whether these effects lingered, the researchers measured how 79 of the dogs responded to a potential food reward. First, they trained the dogs to associate one side of a room with a delicious sausage. If a dog found a bowl in that part of the room, it would contain sausage. But bowls on the other side of the room would be empty.

Then, the researchers placed an empty bowl at various positions between the two extremes and measured how quickly the dogs approached it. An “optimistic” dog would run excitedly to a bowl in the middle, whereas a “pessimistic” dog would move more slowly. (In humans, an equivalent might be a glass half empty versus glass half full mindset.) Such “pessimistic” mindsets have been associated with separation anxiety and other problem behaviors in dogs. In the test, the more punishment a dog had received, the more “pessimistic” it was, and the more pronounced the results.

“This was a careful study,” Bekoff says. And although the paper does not address which method is more effective at training dogs, Bekoff says this and other findings provide more than enough evidence that dog owners should avoid aversive-based training.

That’s often easier said than done, because many dog training schools don’t advertise their methods, and such training is not regulated—at least in the United States, says Zazie Todd, a dog trainer and animal psychology blogger. She adds that dog owners should look explicitly for keywords like “reward-based,” and avoid schools that use language like “balance training” or “dominance methods.”

Bekoff agrees and says owners should take the time to talk to the trainer and to other owners who have worked with them. “[Reward-based training] may take time, but so what? At least the dog isn’t living in fear or constant stress.”

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