well no I havent as I am not a 'hugs' kinda person or one that stands and has things thrown at me!
But I can see how it could help Thank You.

I was gonna say the fear stage thing too
It is just so random and unexpected - with Ben he started to fear different floor surfaces and things moving under his feet
from out of nowhere my well socalised great puppy freaked out and would not come tru doors

Totaly agree with the vet check thing just to be on the safe side
then it might be an idea to do some confidence training
Do you use a clicker??
I would work on desensitising him to crazy human movments - work on it like a stay exercise then lift a foot slightly and click and reward - then move foot some more - click and reward
sloooowly with lots of rewards build up to you doing all sorts of crazy human movments around him
Then rope in someone else and do the same thing again
borrow people to wear crazy hats and backpacks and stuff

get your hands on towels, shopping trolleys, plastic bags and click him for calmly investigating new stuff

take it slow with lots of rewards and never get to the point where he is freaking out and I am sure you will have a confident pup in no time

ohh - I remember seeing vids about this thing a while ago - off to find them

If you play Simon Says with your dog and/or a group of others, this teaches dogs to put their ears on, and ignore your body language.

This is "proofing" your commands; amazing the number of dogs who cannot sit when you touch the floor and say the word sit!

This teaches dogs to LISTEN rather than react to body language and so is useful in this sort of situation too.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup#p/u/72/X5BjvNScFPs

thats a good one for inanimate objects - deff helped me with Mia who freaked out if ANYTHING was different outside the front door - and living opposite a park there were LOTS of different things every day!

I like simon says have to give that a try
afraid I work more on body laungage than verbal commands - I should proof them better

How often do you take him out round town or to markets etc to get him used to strange stuff?

Celt did a similar thing barking at approaching people at about the same age. It is a stage but he still needs to be helped through it. About the same time Celt freaked at a generator running a kids roundabout.

Our dogs don't go out a huge amount except on free running walks but I like them to be capable of being taken anywhere so they have specific 'training' walks to town, markets, boot sales, coffee places etc. Most days if they are pups.

rune

Double post!