David, don't compare your 3 month old pup to an adult dog with solid nerves, etc. Don't consider yourself unfortunate to have a pup who raises its hackles, especially in the instances you mentioned above. What your pup did is absolutely normal. She raised her hackles, you introduced her to the "thing" (exactly what you should have done), she recovered. She sounds like a normal pup reacting to something she's never seen before. It's the recovering that's important in a pup, not the initial hackle raising. Heck, wolves raise their hackles when a threat is perceived.

She was caught off guard by the 2 guys at the fork in the trail. No problem. Same thing as above. It's really ok.

It sounds like you have a very good pup, doing exactly what is normal for a pup her age. You've done well to desensitize her to as much as you can. She doesn't sound weak nerved to me, at all. Also, no reason to let anyone pet her. She doesn't sound like she's afraid of people, so others petting her doesn't need to be done.

Thanks for the encouraging words.. I was hoping there wasn't anything to worry about.. Now that you mention that its the recovery that is important. She did recover very well. She was alarmed for only a moment. I watched Ed's video on puppy selection and I've read the Monks books and a few others. I tried to test her to my best ability with the limited time I had. I'm still on the fence about letting others pet her. I've let probably 20-30 people adults and children pet her. I have her in a sit when they do. What are the pro's and con's of letting others pet her? Will she look to others for affection or something. She seems pretty well attached to me so far. She will sit right in front of me less than maybe 6 inches from my waist and make direct eye contact for quite awhile. I'm conditioning her to look at me by feeding her hotdogs dropped from my mouth. She sits well but she begrudgingly downs, but she will do it. Im teaching her to heel with her at my side. She goes about 3 steps and I drop the treat to her. She catches it maybe 50 percent of the time. I think once she gets good mouth eye coordination she will do pretty well. And on a side note.. What do you think she will look like as an adult? her father was solid black and her mom is a black and tan. I hope she gets the saddle. Thanks again..

God Bless!!

Sounds normal to me too.

Is there a chance that the fishermen had a couple dead fish in their bags?

The dog is a social animal and has social needs. These needs should be met by you, because you need to be the most interesting person in the world to her. This is important especially when it comes to training. If your dog would rather be off somewhere playing with another dog then it's focus is not where it should be and makes training more difficult.
This is a general rule not a hard and fast rule. Each and every dog is different and should be seen that way. If your dog has certain tendencies that are making it difficult for her to feel comfortable around others then do what you must to get her to the place where she can feel comfortable. If your dog isn't a working dog then you have a lot more latitude with this whole idea because she doesn't have to be as focused. Nonetheless the training will still be more difficult. I've trained several dogs and at times due to lack of kennel space had to put 2 dogs together: the day I seperated them into seperate kennels training changed immediately.

 Quote: david chase

.... I'm still on the fence about letting others pet her. I've let probably 20-30 people adults and children pet her. I have her in a sit when they do. What are the pro's and con's of letting others pet her? Will she look to others for affection or something. She seems pretty well attached to me so far......

Personally, I don't want my dog to be friendly with everyone, I want neutral and unaffected, but not friendly enough to be all excited when he sees a stranger and expect to get good things like petting or treats from others who are outsiders. Kind of the same reasoning I wouldn't want my child to go up to whoever, totally trusting.

I also note that strangers love to start giving your dog commands, like "sit", when you let the puppy approach. I do NOT like this and discourage my dog from obeying anyone but me and my son (I just tell my dog "no"). I'm lucky with my current GSD as he is somewhat intimidating to strangers, has a tendency to stare at them until I tell him "leave it". Guess people don't like big black dogs staring at them

You're the pack leader, your dog has pack instincts, and there's no good reason I can think of to allow your dog/puppy to have any gray areas as to who its pack is (home members). The more you build the pack drive in your pup, the more easily trained she will be. If she has gray areas about the pack, her desire to please you as she matures will suffer for it, IMO.

Check out Ed Frawley's article about letting strangers pet your puppy/dog: http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/whocanpetmypuppy.pdf