My lurcher Vic (1 and a bit now) has been behaving a bit oddly over the past couple of days, he's normally a very confident dog and in the past he has been eager to rush up and give anything new he encounters a good sniff.
Down at the river a couple of days ago someone had made a little bee hive shaped mound of stones and he was really scared of it, circling with his tail between his legs and making quiet woofs at it. At the time I thought this was quite funny as he is usually very bold but then the next day he showed similar behavior towards a new table in the garden. Now about half an hour ago we got back from the evening walk and he was scared of a rolled up blanket my OH had brought downstairs while we were out.
The pattern seems to be things he doesn't expect to be there, which is weird because change hasn't seemed to bother him before.
I picked the blanket up to show him it wasn't dangerous and he was still scared so I just sat with it on my lap, the terrier came over and gave it a good sniff and he came over for a look then and stopped worrying about it.
What should I do to help him when he's scared of things? 

Second Fear Imprint Stage

Just make light of it.

Sorry to be dopey but what is second fear imprint stage? Is it a phase then?

Developmental stages.

im lazy, so will link it for you:

http://www.dogclub.co.uk/advice/puppygrowth.php

Really good links guys, thank you. It describes how he's been down to a tee :) Such a relief, I was starting to think something had happened to him when I was away to knock his confidence.