I have the following method for initialize a proxy

public void initialize(Entity owner, String propertyName){
Session session = HibernateFactory.getFactory().getCurrentSession();
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();
try {
tx.begin();
session.lock(owner, LockMode.NONE);
Object property = owner.executeGetter(propertyName);
Hibernate.initialize(property);

tx.commit();
} catch (Exception ex){
ex.printStackTrace();
} finally {
if (tx.isActive()) {
tx.rollback();
}

}
}

owner.executeGetter(propertyName) simply gets the referenced object using reflection.

when property is a Collection, initialize works. But when it is another object, it remains the byte enhanced version, with all its attributes uninitialized.

anything I am doing wrong?

apparently, that is the correct behavior. the property remains a byte code enhanced version even after the initialize() call.

this differs from the case of list properties, which becomes the un-enhanced common version of List.

my problem lies else where, as I discovered.