Can A mother dog teach puppies to be afraid of people?

Mother dogs can teach their babies to be frightened, but it sounds to me like your puppy has learnt to be afraid on his own. I would bet that he's been abused. I certainly wouldn't be surprised, considering the owners wanted to get rid of him when he was still too young to leave his mum and claimed they'd knock him on the head if they couldn't find him a home.

If I were you, I'd do some work with him, building up his confidence and the bond between you. I'd start with some reward-based training with some yummy treats. I'd also start with the toilet training, giving him treats and praise when he does it right.

this may be a temperment issues (like personality) and your indication of distress may be subtle to you but well read by your puppy.  Bitches do tend to pass on behaviors and attitudes.  So fearful bitch and fearful puppies do occur.

Just make sure that you don't raise your voice around the puppy, and you have that covered. Like any other fears, you can start gradually introducing loud voices, but that should be your last concern.

If something upsets or frightens him, DO NOT coddle, baby, pick up, pet (unless used as a reinforcer) the dog. He is learning that "Oh my poor baby! That was SOOOO scary! You're right, we SHOULD be scared!". Instead, say good boy, pat a few times and treat,and if you're on a walk, walk right past it.

Thanks for the responses. My other dog seems to be teaching him not to be so fearful. For example now when voices get raised the puppy starts to run to his crate, goes about half way and comes running back and jumps on Cujo and a play session begins. [] Its like Cujo was laughing at him for running. our biggest problem is his fear of going in frunt of me in the house. That makes litter training impossible. As we have never punished him and I really can't imagine anyone punishing a puppy less than 6 weeks old I just couldn't understand where the fear was coming from.
I have another question. I have never had a dog that loves his crate as much as Stormy does. When he does run to his crate in fear we have been leaving him alone till he feels safe enough to come out on his own. Is this reenforcing his fear? Sometimes he stays in there for hours.

I'm not sure that a mother would make a 6 week old puppy afraid but I am sure that staying with his mother longer would tend to keep him from being afraid.
 
This puppy left his mom at least 2 weeks before he should have.
 
Probably more than abuse this puppy has suffered the neglect of human contact and socialization. I'd cuddle with him a lot, roughouse with him a lot and have him meet as many people and be in as many different circumstances as possible. Having him around other dogs - at least to see and smell them - might help too. Knowing how to deal with dogs is something he will be bad at because he'd learn that from his mother in the final couple of weeks.
 
Good luck

Welcome back, Bunni.  You've been missed.  I love your new picture panel.
 
Joyce

You'll have to pardon me, because I've always had large dogs and so I'm not familiar with the rationale behind trying to train a dog to use a litter box.  This dog sounds like he has some excellent ingrained housebreaking skills!  Why not reinforce that? 

Well I have actually given up on that idea with him but Cujo is litter trained so when the weather is bad, I'm too busy, or not feeling well he doesn't have to suffer He prefers to go out but will use the litter when he has too. Either dog goes out except on a leash. Stormy was less than two pounds when I brought him home and we had five inchs of snow. That plus his age made me think it was too darn cold for my baby. Luckily the snow has melted and its been pretty warm, plus he is now 5 pounds and has hair over an inch long so I don't feel too bad taking him out for short periods. Small dogs have small bladders and it usally takes me longer to get ready to take them out than they are out when the weather is bad so I guess its a laziness factor[]

Thanks for clarifying that.  I have dogs because I don't want cats - I don't like having animals that have to pee and poop in the house.  (I had cats for many years, granted - I just really never got over the idea of hating the principle of the litter box!)
 
So it sounds like you have a situation where you have to physically take them out versus shoveling a path for them in the snow and just letting them out in the yard? 
 
Another thought would be, what about those Pee Pad things? I thought those were made with scent posts that would encourage the dogs to mark.  If he can't get used to litter maybe that would be a good backup plan. 
 
Well, good luck with the housetraining.  I'm sure you'll be able to undo some of the fears he came with. 

Another thought would be, what about those Pee Pad things? I thought those were made with scent posts that would encourage the dogs to mark. If he can't get used to litter maybe that would be a good backup plan.

 
You wouldn't understand. It's a little dog thing. []
 
Apparently the puppies I've had never read the label on the PeePee pads. They were not the least bit attracted to the pads except to shred them and drag them around the house. As indoor peeing/pooping goes the litter box is usually the least messy. There are a lot of reasons that people decide to use them: Cold weather (as mentioned above), people who live on the 101th floor, women who don't want to walk the neighborhood at night and many others.
 
Keep in mind that the toy breeds (for reasons I don't know) tend to take longer to housebreak than other dogs. The hardest part of housebreaking is teaching the dog how to let you know when he wants to go out. The litter box eliminates this part of training so training is pretty fast. All of my pups leave here using the litter box exclusively when they are in the pen and using it at least intermittantly when they are in the playroom. Once they are well trained to the litter box they can be trained to go outside. Of my own dogs (who I don't really encourage to use the box) about 4 of them will use it if the doggie door is shut.
 
 

Thanks for clearing that up!  I had no idea how common that was for small breed dogs.  I knew they took longer to housetrain, but didn't know litter training was an option.   And LOL on the pee pads!

Maybe you could try putting the litter box outside and encourage him to go there..