Initially, when john watson and his colleague, rosalie rayner, showed little albert a live white rat. albert:

Albert liked the rat and seemed delighted.

When he was first presented with a white rat, Albert didn't seem to mind it - in fact, he was very interested in it and wanted to play with it. However, during the experiment, Albert was taught to associate white color with a scary stimulus, so over time, he was conditioned to be afraid of anything white, including that white rat he initially liked.