Question: How do I start my function every 5 minutes and 20 seconds? I used: 

```
self.timer = QtCore.QTimer(self)
self.timer.timeout.connect(self.updateplot)
self.timer.start(310000)

```

But I'd like to set it by the time of my PC - so if I start the program at 3:23, the update track is at 3:25:20, 3:30:20 etc.

Answer: 
You can think like this that a dog has several properties or attributes like breed type, origin, name and many more. You can add the values to list also, but it will be better to maintain a map because while retrieving you have to know what you are trying to retrieve.

It will be better to maintain a Map of attributes and actual values. The code may be like this.

```
public class Dog {
    private Map<String,String> attributesMap = new HashMap<>();

    //getter and setter for attributesMap

}   

```

You can create instance of Dog class and add the attributes like this.

```
Dog dog = new Dog();
dog.getAttributesMap().put("breed", "some breed");
dog.getAttributesMap().put("origin", "some some origin");

System.out.println("What is the breed type: "+dog.getAttributesMap().get("breed");

```
It is not much different from your solution but at least it controls a bit values being returned as List.

```
private List<String> allValues = new ArrayList<>();

public Dog(String breed, String name, String origin) {
   this.breed = setAndReturn(breed);
   this.name = setAndReturn(name);
   this.origin = setAndReturn(origin);
}

private String setAndReturn(String value) {
   if (value != null) {
      allValues.add(value);   
   }
   return value;
}

public List<String> toList() {
   return allValues;
}

```