Jett the border Collie

Jett the border Collie (Jett Davis on facebook) :
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He’s three-ish years old. Jett was raised by someone that gave him a great foundation. But something happened and Jett was tied outside and alone for 8 months. Then Arizona border collie association rescued Jett from a kill shelter and started the healing process. He had 6 different fosters/owners before coming to us.
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We have owned border collies while competitively competing in agility. We see that Jett is an amazing dog, even for a border collie. Jett is more agile and smarter than average. Jett is special, but some humans have failed him and, rightfully, he is scared of them.
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Jett came to us with people fear aggression and minor nipping, along with being very affectionate, fiercely loyal, eager to please, quick to learn, and great house dog. Inside, Jett is a total joy to own. But outside, he is a bit of a mess. But we seemed to be making some progress on his fears when the problem escalated with an unfortunate turn of events. A neighbor rang the doorbell repeatedly and Jett being over stimulated, he bit and released both husband and wife… drawing blood on the man. We felt we didn’t have the knowledge to help Jett.
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We sought out a multiple trainers. During one evaluation, we watched one “trainer” use abuse, hitting Jett, pulling dog off feet with choke collar, shutting head hard in doorway… etc… Jett didn’t stay with Guthrie’s Dog training. http://www.guthrieinternational.com/
After this experience we were vulnerable, the training techniques from Puppysense seemed “better” and we thought this was the answer. It was not.

SO WHERE IS JETT TODAY WITH HIS TRAINING?
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Jett has won our hearts, he is a special dog and we love him fiercly. But boy, does he test our patience sometimes! It seems like we have a handle on his issues, then he goes through a total regression and/or develops another behavioural issue. No wonder Brittany gave up on him!

We have been making progress with his fear aggression towards people. It will take some time and he may never be a perfectly friendly dog to strangers, but I think we will get him to the point of tolerating new people.

Lots of punishment based training has been used on Jett, shock collars, isolation, vinegar spray to face.. those other trainers didn't get any results with Jett. Now we are using all positive methods and he is responding to it. With Jett's history, he has low confidence and lots of fears. If we continually reasure him he's not getting transplanted again and he's safe, I think he'll flourish.

We won't give up on you Jett!