i don't do any serious training untill they're 4 months old. house breaking starts as soon as you bring your pup home. i brought my pup home and he was in the house for 15 minutes and outside we went and then every 1/2 hour for awhile. ask your breeder to start to crate train your pup. we crated our dog often. not just at bed time. our pup got use to the crate quickly. he started going in and out of it when ever he wanted to play or nap. we started teaching him his name from the moment we picked him up at the airport. we would just talk to him usuing his name. then my GF would hold him and i would walk a couple of feet away and call him and treat him when he came to me. then i would hold him and my GF would call him and treat when he came. as he progressed we would make the distant longer. after that i would hide from him and call him. in the house i would go into another room or hide behind a door and call him. outside i would hide behind a tree or duck behind a car or hide behind a building. he caught on. that NILIF i don't use. we give them treats for no reason or they don't have to do something to get a treat. lots of times my GF will give them a treat before bed time. what commands does your dog have to follow to go out? why not let him out to relieve himself then start the commands. you want to teach him not to run or walk out of the door when it's open. you want him to wait untill you say it's ok to go outside and i mean having the door wide open he waits untill you say it's ok to go outside. i open my front door and i have my neighbors come over and pet my dog and call him and he won't walk outside. i have them bring their Shep over (whom he plays with all of the time) and walk up our steps and let the dogs get nose to nose and my neighbor walks away, calls him and he won't walk out of the door. playtime, i think 20 minutes is a long time for a 8 week old pup to play. i would play with him alot but for 5 or 10 minutes at a time. that's also how i trained my dog. our training were 4 or 5 times a day but for short periods (5 to 10 minutes each time and ending on a positive note). before i started walking my dog and taking him around alot of places i made sure he had his 2nd round of shots. i don't know if that's necessary but i felt it was safer. at 8 weeks old my pup couldn't go a 1/2 mile. we took really short walks in the begining and built it up gradually. start looking into puppy classes now because you need to know when classes start. plus you get to see the class and you can make sure it's a good one. expose your pup to everything and i do mean everything. i use to hang out in next to the super doors. lots of people and children. lots of people will want to pet a puppy and you know the children will. good exposure at the super markets doors. socialize and socialize and socialize. socializing is so important. you want your pup to meet people, other animals and to get use to all of sounds and motion when you're not at home. find a trainer and check out their classes before you enroll your pup. i like private lessons in the begining. group classes are good but i think it's tough for a puppy that's just learning to pay attention when there's other dogs around. one trainer i used always started out with private lessons and then mix in group lessons. having a pup is a blast. they learn so quickly. have a camera handy. those puppy shots are priceless. don't overwhelmed or worried. raising a Shep pup is easy. i've never found it to be hard. stay with this forum because all of the answers to your questions are here. good luck with the new pup.