Editors Note: It is hard to keep a treadmill in some parts. So be careful in showing it for all the neighboors to see.

Conditioning

I chose the technique that conditions the body to utilize the most nutrition in a short time, a "running keep" is a free conditioning. The body will convert a vast amount of nutrients and fuels into energy at a low temperature for a long time. That technique used properly, with a schedule that allows the dog to respiratory recover sufficiently, every time he comes from maximum stress every day at least 6 times, will allow the dog to start the contest prepared to stay at (maximum stress) m/s for as long as it takes. Not fight good for 30 minutes and fade and still win. I mean jump to M/S and at the end of the contest still have an above average heart rate. I'm happy because I did all I could do for that animal, whether I win or lose. The words maximum stress expressed during conditioning means he will break stride to recover. M/S expressed in the contest means while at M/S he won't have to break stride to recover, because his heart rate has never been higher during the contest than any day during the entire "keep". Most likely never reach but 2/3, which will lengthen the time at M/S, and shorten the recovery time so he can get back to the business at hand with style. Technique, scheduling recovery, progressively resting is the correct way to prepare your dog for the contest. A free turning treadmill, easy pulling flying jenny, or a bicycle allows the dog to condition a very high heart rate without any stress, strain or tension. Your dog may get tired, but never get weak and stagger around, even if the contest goes more than an hour. The contest will tell the whole story. I missed it more times than I would like to remember. I hope to enlighten everyone so your dog won't faulter, break stride with no choice in the matter. If at any time he slows down it is because his adversary is on the bottom trying to recover. I will tell everyone everything I know about conditioning maximum/stress, so everyone can make adjustments to my schedule. So after every contest you know if the dog needs more recovery time, extended progressive rest time, longer pre-keep, or fight the dog lighter, with a running keep you can never fight the dog heavy. When you can do that with confidence, you may not do as well as you did last time, but you won't do bad ever again.

Free Conditioning

What to do, what to expect, in preparation and during conditioning, and in preparation for the contest.

The book explains the respiratory recovery method for a bulldog. I've chosen a 15 minute sessions, check the heart rate, if the heart rate is the same or less than the day before take the dog for a 5 minute walk and add 5 minutes of work to the schedule. Do this day after day until you build a second 15 minutes session. I takes two 15 minute sessions to reach maximum stress (M/S) with a rise in temperature. Continue to add five minutes of work until you get a bad recovery. A bad recovery means yesterday was too much work. Now you know essentially how much work your dog can take. Continue to check his heart rate every day at 15 minutes in case you get a good recovery so you can add another 5 minutes, looking for another bad recovery. Whether or not you are adding work or not, three days before the match you cut that work in half. Two days before the match cut the work in half again. Fight day you need to finish your dog like the book tells you. A free turning treadmill is much easier than running down the road.

Rest

When your dog achieves a fixed time because of a bad recovery that day to the end of the keep, your dog will build a solid base of condition. It's called rest! You still check your dog's respiration every day. At this part of the keep his respiration may fluctuate slightly from day to day. Marginal differences should be of no consequence. By this time you will know what a bad recovery is, and make any adjustments in work time. Understanding "maximum stress" plus ten days of pre-keep, and twenty-seven days of the keep only conditions your dog for the fight, three days correctly resting the dog is the only real preparation for the fight night and is equally important as the previous thirty-seven days of keep. Not enough rest or too much rest, has the same effect on your dog. It allows maximum stress (energy deficiency) to show up in the fight sooner than you expected. I rest the dog with less and less mill work in the last three days of the keep, because the dog doesn't need much rest, if any at all. The dog needs to retain the rate of conversion of nutrients into energy. It took mill work to create such a high rate of conversion. I rest the dog just enough for the dog's body to store inside fat ( quick burning energy) that is used and replaced daily under stressful conditions, and retain fluid at the rate that I control. This procedure allows my dog to breath freely throughout the fight, which results in no hot spot; they just keep kicking ass! That's why I like to fight dogs that start fast, because I really love to watch my dog assault the other dog.

Progressive Work Schedule

1. I get home from work.

2. I take my dog off the chain.

3. I walk my dog for 5 minutes to empty out.

4. I put the dog on the treadmill, he should run as fast as he can, and I leave the room.

5. I can hear the noisy treadmill I build when the dog breaks stride. When he breaks stride, he should fall to a walk or a long stride to rest and recover because he's oxygen deficient. I come back into the room so he will stay at the rest mode. I usually sit down and write something for one of the magazines.

6. At the 10 minute mark I jump up and leave the room, and he should break on top again. It is good for a dog to be able to break out on top with ease.

7. When he breaks stride, down to a walk or a long stride to the rest mode, I come back into the room.

8. At the 15 minute mark I put my foot on the mill and check his heart rate. Every day of the keep and all the way through to the match your dog will do this 15 minute session. Take his heart rate, take him off the mill and walk him out in the same place you emptied him at the start of the day, for five minutes. After 10 days of pre-keep you should get a handleon the heart rate that prepares him for the progressive work schedule.

9. Three more days of the same 15 minutes schedule of the keep, to ensure an accurate heart rate.

10. On the 4th day of the keep. If his heart rate is the same or less than the day before at the 15 minute mark you get to add 5 minutes of work after you take him for his 5 minute walk. He should break on top for a few minutes and break stride to rest. At the 5 minute mark, take him off the mill and walk him out and put him up.

11. On the 5th day of the keep do the first 15 minute session and check his heart rate. If his heart rate is the same or less than yesterday add another 5 minutes to his work schedule.

12. On the 6th day of the Keep do the first 15 minute session, check his heart rate. If his heart rate is the same or less than yesterday, add another 5 minutes to the schedule, which will make another complete 15 minute session, so you take him for his 5 minute walk, I cool my dog down with a water hose if the weather permits, (70 degrees F.) or more. Only after completing his second 15 minute session on the 6th day, your dog will begin to warm up.

14. Two 15 minute sessions is the foundation of this free conditioning program. Continually adding 5 minutes every day building another 15 minute session looking for a bad recovery. A bad recovery means a higher heart rate than yesterday, meaning yesterday was too much work. It could take 3, 4, or 5 15 minute sessions to get a bad recovery. When you get a bad recovery, you know how much work that your dog can take.

There are many variables to contend with; if your treadmill is not free turning. Your dog has to gallop instead of running freely, Usually a dog will stop and stand after he comes down from the gallop on a hard pulling mill. The 10 day pre-keep will condition your dog to gallop the treadmill instead of preparation for the contest. When he gets to the pit he will experience a higher heart rate than you conditioned during the keep. The reason people can't see when a dog breaks stride on a hard pulling mill. It's because he doesn't get any rest on top tugging at a gallop and if he is in good enough shape to walk on a hard pulling mill after galloping for 10 minutes, he won't get any rest tugging at a walk, so you actually overwork your dog, starting with the first day. You will actually condition your dog to run the treadmill instead of preparing him for the contest, and when the contest starts he's sure to take bottom to rest. Your dog will have to take bottom much sooner than expected. It's called too much work, not enough rest to recover. That's why when I come home from work I only walk for 5 minutes, so I can put him on the mill ice cold for 3 to 6 minutes on top, because he will start the contest ice cold. When he does warm up in the contest at Maximum Stress (M/S) he will feel strong because you have prepared your dog for the contest every day. It's a feeling that he experienced every day of the keep. Hoping your adversary was conditioned with a different work schedule, most likely your adversary will experience uncharted territory with a higher heart rate than any day of his condition.

K/D Prescription Dog Food

Any vet will have K/D diet dog food, but it is prescription because of the cobalt in it. It's very important to use K/D dog food as a filler, along with the feed sheet I sent you with my book. If you bought my book and didn't get a feed sheet, call me. There's no way you can condition maximum stress using any other dog food. Not just because of no cobalt, because all others have so much animal fat and meat by-products. To condition maximum stress properly in preparation to peak condition, your dog ends up with life sustaining reserve energy which will be used after your dog comes down progressively from maximum stress. Only you will know how long he should stay at M/S because you worked him. Most people hate to see their dog get to M/S because shortly after, their dog will falter and have to take bottom to respiratory recover. When both dogs fail to recover most people thought it was a great fight. I wondered how I could tell people how to condition M/S, meaning a conditioned heart rate. So check his heart rate every day the 15 minute mark. If his heart rate is the same or less than the day before, you can ad 5 minutes of mill work after his 5 minute walk to recover. Conditioned maximum stress means to condition the heart to beat as many times per minute until your dog breaks stride. When he breaks stride it's because he's oxygen deficient, breaking stride starts his recovery, as soon as the work load decreases. In the contest, he should never reach a heart rate as high as any day on the mill. If you achieve that with technique and diet your dog will fall into his own schedule. When he becomes oxygen deficient, he will break stride in the fight to replenish the oxygen in his blood, hoping the other dog is on the bottom so he can't recover. During the contest it takes 4 minutes at a very high heart rate for all of the blood to get back to the heart. But all the blood leaving the heart isn't equally distributed. Which is just fine for normal living. When the contest start, and the heart rate increases, the blood becomes more and more oxygen deficient, that's the beginning of maximum stress. When a dog falters, slows down, breaks stride it's because the brain is oxygen deficient more so than the body. As I've said before, the blood leaving the heart is not equally distributed. Under normal living conditions the body can and does absorb oxygen efficiently. By the time M/S is reached, meaning the highest conditioned heart rate, then and only then does the body temperature rise. Your job is to prepare your dog to delay that rise in temperature and oxygen deficiency. To slow down the temperature rise, it takes the correct amount of (H20) water no more, no less for that condition, so your dog can breath. Correctly free conditioned he will breath. Also, free conditioning will automatically store life sustaining fat (bonus energy) but use up daily fat supplements. Correctly administered allows the body to cool. Free conditioning can and does allow you to achieve this, more so than other techniques. Correctly done your dog will stay cooler take longer to reach a true M/S, stay at M/S longer, and recover much sooner. It's like he never stopped fighting the whole fight. Your dog breaks on top, turns the heat up, may never reach M/S, recovers with energy to spare, wins the fight while your adversary struggles through the whole ordeal. Not every on looker knows how you won. You, on the other hand, become a competitor with confidence, and there isn't any better feeling because there isn't any other way to win a fight. I like winning against bite, ability, gameness and any bloodline. My fight is with conditioning my dog, not with my adversary. My adversary reminds me every day that I need to pay attention to his recovery every day. His recovery every day will tell you how he will do battle. But from the time the contest starts the blood becomes more and more oxygen deficient. That's why you should prepare the blood with the right nutrients to achieve the correct blood count to absorb as much oxygen as possible. The higher the average heart rate you condition and recover from properly, the more oxygen in the blood your dog starts the fight with. At the same time you will condition the heart to pump more blood for a longer time. This shortens recovery time because of the great health and condition of your dogs heart rate. That condition occurs during the contest. In other words he never experiences uncharted territory and that's the key to conditioning a dog. You can't see that condition vividly if you didn't peak your dog, otherwise you win or lose the fight with energy to spare. You cannot achieve this by strength conditioning your dog. You cannot achieve that doing strength and free conditioning both. Strength conditioning of any kind is not preparation for the contest. Meaning the entire fight consists of fast muscle twitch exercise, that's how you win fights. Why any one would strength condition a bull dog and achieve a much higher heart rate in the pit than they conditioned at home meaning their dog will be oxygen deficient much sooner than yours. Whether I win or not, I will bring the fight to you as long as I can. Also it doesn't make any difference which dog gets to M/S first. Most dogs that reach M/S first usually lose because it is not a conditioned M/S. A good to great free conditioned dog will reach M/S subsequently at the same time but with no stress involved with oxygen absorption, because he was freely conditioned. A free conditioned dog progressively rested, will take longer to raise the heart rate to perform at M/S because he will run cooler longer because it takes longer to raise the temperature than with other techniques or a combination of techniques. A great conditioning is to stay at M/S longer than your adversary. If he does, he may never heat up, reach M/S or break stride, or ever need to recover and that's what we hope to achieve. Never take a dog's water. If you take away his water, you take from him his cooling. When progressively rested with water he won't retain any extra moisture. If you condition the heart beat, not to speak of all the air moving in and out of his lungs for cooling. When you progressively cut back on work, he won't gain any weight match day all day. Of course, if you don't know how to finish a dog a correctly you will end up testing his gameness instead of finishing your dog in preparation for the contest. You may win, you may lose. You need to change, unless you are happy with your performance in your last match. I've never been that happy. That's why the diet on the feed sheet is so simple, as long as you use K/D prescription dog food. Dogs that have bad kidneys and real old dogs are put on this diet to give them longevity in this world. No animal fat to heat your dog up. The best source of life sustaining fat that will be used up as the last energy source before he goes into mild shock or worse. A sufficient amount of recovery time every time he breaks stride builds life sustaining fat. Too much work or not enough rest to recover uses up the reserve energy and you start the match energy deficient. Yet he will look great and feels fine. So in preparation for the contest you must get all your ducks in a row. If you need to feed cornflakes, fine, cornflakes won't hurt him. But, don't feed any leafy greens because of the high sulfur content, which is very hard on a dogs' kidneys on a daily use. If you are looking for vitamin K; STOP. Because you have all you need with the correct diet and blood count. You can only put so much rain in a rain barrel. A conditioned heart rate means less moisture, means more air without taking away his water. Less fat means cooler dog at M/S means shorter recovery time means, you get to finish the match with energy to spare, win, lose, or draw. At least you've done your part, the outcome is up to the dog.