Sudden nervousness

Hey everyone!

So, we have been working really hard to make sure Pru is well socialised, gets a wide variety of walks and gets to interact with plenty of people and other dogs, it had been going really well up until this weekend.

We sometimes take her on a woodland walk near our house, its shady on hot days and there are lots of other people walking their dogs. We always let her off the lead for this walk. The first little hiccup came when we got round a corner to see a bunch of 6-8 people all walking together with their miscellaneous little scruffy dogs (shih tzu types) there about 9 dogs in all and they all came running up to see Pru at once, now Pru is used to 1 on 1 hellos with other dogs but she's never experienced a swarm, she instantly turned and bolted about 20 feet away and turned and looked at us, the other dogs started sniffing her and I think I saw her snap and growl at one. My partner went over to her, she ran up to him and the little parade passed on by. Not realllly sure if we did the right thing?

The second thing to happen was when we were walking through a quiet valley and suddenly a little boy comes running down the hill towards us screaming at the top of his lungs. He was just playing but I saw Pru go stiff and scared instantly. Then it got worse, the little boy tripped and flew up in the air landing painfully on his back! Well, then he did start to wail and cry. Pru started running away off up the track turning to growl and cower every so often. Again, my partner had to bypass the crying boy and coax her back to us.

Today, I took her to the park near our house as I usually do and she was all kinds of nervous, kept trotting forward and then standing alert and looking around even though the park was empty. I am really worried that these two events have spooked her, is there anything you think I should have done differently, or could do to reassure her?

Thanks guys & gals.

How old is she now? Personally I think the best thing to do in a sitaution when your dog appears nervous/scared is not to make a fuss but confidently carry on and they will sense your confidence.

She's about 18 weeks now.

She will feed off your confidence. As Sazzle says, carry on be confident and don't make a big deal of things. If you do make a fuss then she is likely to make an association with scary things rather than notice and just move on.

I'm sure that this will pass as she becomes more confident and gets older. If it does continue, try distraction. Get her to sit and concentrate on you. When she does this reward her. Hopefully as I've said she will become more confident as she matures.

They do go through various fear phases. Agree with Saz, carry on confidently and they will soon pick up that everything's ok

Can only really echo what has already been said. Meeting a pack is intimidating to any dog let alone a pup and a crying child will be a new noise and she will pick up the distress of the child and also the fact that you will be showing concern for the child as well as your concern for how she is reacting to it

They will pick up some random fears Ledgers is blue signs that move in the wind (those cashpoint advertising ones you get outside shops)

Aww yes she's still a baby and everything is new to her   

Aw thanks guys. I will definitely try to stay confident at all times now. A weird new one she seems to have picked up is a fear of magpies, you know that horrible rattly noise they make? Sends her into a panic. Doh!

Jshrew- the blue signs did make me laugh!

is it maybe an age thing ? Tia has been jumpy this last week was down to a carrier bag the other day she is the same age..