I am not sure of your particular dog or your particular case but I will venture to say 15 minutes could have been light. There is no written keep that out there that can accurately say what a dog will need two Thursdays from now on the 35th day of the keep. Simply can't be done. Every dog starts from a different level of readiness. Some dogs are more fit to start by nature or chain activity while the next dog may not be as 'ready' to start. Each dog will progress at a different rates and then there is always the chance of regress which tosses the minutes for that day of a written keep, as well as the next day, right out the window.

I used the principles of the Lemm keep of work, recovery and work on a carpet mill. I did not have a goal of working to a minute count, if that makes sense. I put the dog on the carpet mill and let him go all out til he broke, walked him out til he was ready and ran him again til he broke. This would be one set. I measured the initial run, the recovery time and the second run. In time the first run increased, the recovery time decreased and the last run increased. As the times increased on the carpet mill I would move to two sets and then to three in a session. Understanding the carpet mill is a tougher run the 2nd and 3rd runs were substantially lower than the first, especially when doing other work in between.

On the mill I did not work toward a total minute time as a goal. The dog truly dictated the times by what he could do on that particular day. If the times dropped off in the initial run or the dog did not recover from set to set as well as he did yesterday, then I more than likely over worked him the day before. Another adjustment has to be made. The principles are similar but I did not use heart rates as a factor. I basically let the dog stop the stopwatch not the stopwatch stop the dog. EWO