My 14 week old pup is nervous around strangers,he barks at them if they come near him.I bred him and he has had all the usual socialising,meeting lots of new people since being newborn,he was brought up in a busy household with other dogs ,children and quite a lot of visitors. We have been taking him to obedience training and Ringcraft twice a week,i also take him to the local park and sit on the bench when the school children come out,hes fine with children its just adults. I ask people who approach him to give him a treat which he will take and then he turns his head away or will bark at them. His mum is the friendliest dog i have known she loves all people and adores a fuss of anyone so i cant understand where it comes from.
In the house he is just a normal friendly pup but outside he is so nervous. Any suggestions on how i can get him over this please.

They go through a fear stage at this age so continuing what you are doing and OTT praise when he gets it right and ignore when he gets it wrong, adults being much bigger than kids may be why he acts differently.

How is he about being examined at Ringcraft?

He doesnt like being examined,he shies away and sometimes growls.Im thinking of asking one of the ladies i know at ringcraft to hold him and sit with him this week, what do you think?
He has been the same since we started taking him out,we take him to lots of places eg Parks,quiet pubs,busy markets,and outside schools

> I ask people who approach him to give him a treat

Ask people NOT to approach him. There will be a point at which he starts to get uncomfortable with a stranger approaching him, do not let the stranger get any closer than that and idealy, stop them just before they get to that point. Let pup go to the stranger. Stranger can drop treats on the floor if it is not pushing pup over his limits.
Depending on how feearful pup is, treats may be best gently tossed away from the stranger onto the floor, so pup doesn't have to approach stranger to get them.
At this point, the treats are about making a positive association between the presence of stranger and pup, not about pup interacting with stranger.
Things need to be taken slowly, pup may suprise you and make progress quickly if he is not pushed out of his comfort zone, but if you try to rush things with him, it can make him worse and make the problem much harder to deal with.

> outside he is so nervous

How about doing things like just sitting outside for 10or15 mins a couple of times a day with him. Not walking anywhere, not meeting people/dogs, just for him to take in all the different sights & sounds of the world (on your front lawn if you have one). You could chuck in some basic obiedience - things he allready knows how to do, simple things like 'sit', with a reward for sitting.. Little things like this can help give him a general little confidence boost outside.

I agree 100 % with Mastifflover. The worst thing you can do is force anything so stop touching at ringcraft and elsewhere and toss treats on ground, don't even try to get him to take them from hands. The fact he is growling you need to really watch as if you don't listen to it and stop having him gone over (which is what he is asking for), chances are he will try to bite next instead.  I know how hard it is with a pup like this, I've had one -sadly he never turned normal (he's still the same aged nearly 5) and my belief is that he was born this way. I had a second litter from the same mum 2 years later and those pups were totally different.

When you've been out and about socialising, have you made sure that he actually ENJOYS it all? I.e. it's no good just exposing a pup to a lot of different things, they have to enjoy each new experience as well, otherwise it won't work and may in fact have the opposite effect. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, it's just that I know it's easy to forget that part as many people do, I've done it myself in the past. With a pup now, the first thing I do every time we get to a new place is whip out the sausages and start feeding so the pup associates the new place with something extra nice.

He enjoys walks when hes out with his Mum,hes a lot more confident when out with her. Its mainly at obedience and Ringcraft or when we go out on our own. I really hope i can get him out of this and will try the things you have advised.

Although my girl does not growl and is not overly bothered by people she does not like being gone over at ringcraft.  She's only a few weeks older than your pup and is teething so I don't think that's helping.  I am still taking her to ringcraft but I am not going to allow anyone to go over her.  I do let her sit with other people and she's a horror jumping all over them, she nearly landed on a man's head the other week with excitement.
It could be that your pup is also going through the fear stage and also may be teething.

Really great advice from mastifflover.  You need to slow right down.  Ignoring growls is asking for a dog to bite.  He is stressed right now.

really pleased took my girl to ringcraft last night with thee decision of not letting anyone go over her and she stood there and let them.....   Hope your pup come through the fear period soon, it can be such a disheartening time...

I'm going through a similar phase with my now 11 month old puppy. All has been well and good with him so far (Mallinois), he has been happy and confident when we have been out and about but now we have started going to agility shows after the winter and he isn't happy. On our show at Easter lots of people hadn't seen him since he was small so all wanted to say hi which freaked him out so had to say to everybody please completely ignore him but drop treats near him. He was OK with that. Last weekend it was windy, the wind blowing one of the tents freaked him out and it took ages to calm him down. After that the best I could get was a few sits and downs for treats next to the van. Tomorrow I only plan to take him to quiet areas at the show, nowhere near the rings, just have fun in the exercise area. Luckily we are at Lincoln showground which is massive so easy to find a quiet place. It will just have to be slow and steady with him now.