skittishness

Question
My dog is an 8 month old golden retriever/standard poodle cross.  He's wonderful in almost every way, but he's nervous around strangers, passing cars on the street, etc.   Do you have any recommendations for helping him deal with scary situations, especially meeting new people?

Answer
Take him to the park or someplace where you can start back away from the traffic.  Drill him in obedience of just sit there and pet him.  From time to time move a little closer to the traffic.  Don't push him past where he is comfortable.  Come back another day and work at it some more.  If you have a fenced area, you can even work at fetch.  You may never get to where he is completely comfortable around it, but better.  

One big thing with people is to arrange to have people he doesn't know give him treats.  Most Goldens are highly food motivated and respond well to treats.  Also if after initially being skittish, he will accept petting, let them.  
Greeting people with enthusiasm helps too.  He should take his clue from you.  Force yourself to relax.  He will pick up any tension on your part and feel the stranger is even more sinister.   

It is too late for him now, but you can avoid such problems by exposing the puppy to things before it is 12 weeks old.  There are 2 problems with that.  In some cases, you don't have the puppy at that time.  Many breeders hang on to the puppies, but fail to do so.  The other thing is doing so without exposing it to parvo and other life threatening diseases.