What do you start with?

With a new pup there are SO many things I want to do, and she is a little sponge, I have to keep reminding myself she is only 8 weeks!!

She is a great tugger so we are doing lots of tugging and when she drops/lets go by accident we get a Sit then restart the game - consequently her sit is getting very good and very quick. She has also started on a down and has a good name response and recall.

So what do you start with and why?

It's a bit different for me as Axel was almost 4 when he came to us and had an institutionalised upbringing. Most of the first few weeks was just helping him settle and learn about us and the house. During that time the first thing we really tried to teach him was his new name. Recall is really important to me and if I was ever to have a chance of letting him off-lead I needed a strong response
Hope that's the kind of answer you were looking for

Any answer is interesting. I am just curious about how people start.

It does not matter whether they are older/pups or what or where they have come from

I start and finish with give and stay.

...i seem not to concentrate on one thing at that age..i kinda do all the basics at once with everyday things.

I guess the first thing is the watch me. I find it very useful to teach the dog new commands from. Wait is taught from the beginning too. Keiko has a fab wait, the best out of the lot of them.

With Rosie, we've worked/played utilising what comes naturally to her.

Tug is a favourite and she's pretty good at 'give' (or let go) now. Her sit was solid from the moment she came home - it seems to be her natural default.

From the start her favourite toy has been her ball and retrieving it is again a natural thing for her so we worked a little on dropping it on return and that came very quickly - she drops it every time now.

We've done a little bit on the down and she loves doing twirls. Stay also seems natural so we're building a little duration into that.

Lead walking is coming along fine on her short walks and she's learning in a very gentle way that not everyone wants to stop and say hello

Housetraining is a slower process for her, but it will come

Like your baby, she's a little sponge that just loves to learn through play.

I have slightly altered things with each new puppy as I hope I have learned and progressed over the years with each one.

With the last one (who is now 7) I did a bit of everything from Day 1, recalls, developing muscle memory with SSD, sendaways, speaks, retrieving etc

With the next one, who knows..........

Sit the next one is wait, we practice at every meal. I also practice the recall comstantly really and work on soft mouth stuff.

Thanks everyone.

I hope I have learnt from each dog/pup I have started. As my aims change of the future I think different exercises become more important.

I try very hard not to make the same mistakes again - but I am sure I forget what I did with previous pups!!

I do remember Siren was not in the slightest people orientated - this one is a real worm and loves people.

Interesting to read.