A story to help with your understanding of puppy fear periods: Eighteen-week-old Louis, a Westie puppy, was very relaxed behind a gate that divided his area and the living room where I sat with his human mom. He quietly played without crying or pawing to get to us. Even when we walked outside for a moment, there was not a peep from him. I was told he also went readily into his crate for naps and showed no real fears of anything he saw out in the big world during one of his puppy socialization outings. “What a well-adjusted little boy,” I thought.
Then, as we continued our conversation, I pulled out a hollee roller and dropped it over the gate for him to play with. That is when I saw the fear response shown in the video. He barked and backed away from it, not quite sure what to make of that round green foreign object.