We all have different ways of starting them off mate, I'm not a big lover of running them with other dogs until they have learnt to hunt scents for themselves, I think some dogs become lazy and can let the more experienced dogs do the graft.
I like to take them ferreting when mature mentally and physically to cope, once they are marking, holding rabbits in the net and chasing bolters and of course retrieving, some dogs are jealous retrievers so another reason to start alone, take them some where there are rabbits sitting out, let them hunt them up, even going into cover, the earlier experi