The aim of the presented study was to determine the relationship between heifers that were reared with a mother and/or in a group as opposed to those that were separated shortly after birth and/or housed individually up to 8 weeks of age, to a human at the age of 13 months. We found that the avoidance distance of heifers at the age of 13 months was not affected by housing in early ontogeny. This result shows that fears of a poorer calf-human relationship in socially reared calves (with mother and/or in a group) are unfounded and that this relationship is formed by many other factors during rearing and the individuality of the animal.