Man, the only time it's too late to rain a dog is when it has dementia. Which sucks, not that they cease to be trainable, but that they get dementia; it isn't fucking fair.

All you have to do is find the right reward, and break down the desired behavior into steps combined with signals.

You want a dog to sit, as an example, you find their magic reward. For the example, let's stick with a food treat. You get the dog's attention, you give a gentle push on their rear while giving the signal and when they get a little lower, you give the reward. Easy peasy.

You expand that by extending how far into the sit they get before they get the reward. Most dogs, you can have responding to a verbal sit command in ten minutes, and they'll remember it for ages. Once they're responding to a verbal command at all, give another signal with it, like a finger moving from pointing at them, then down. That way, they'll be able to respond to visual signals as well, which is handy when there's a lot of noise and they need to obey a command for safety.

It doesn't even have to be a word or a gesture, you can do whistles, clicks, whatever. The key is that each command needs to be distinct, and short. Trying to say "hey dog, jump up into my arms" might eventually work, but it'll take longer.

Which leads into training to get them doing something like that. Easiest is when they already display a behavior, like jumping. They jump up, you say "good jump" and give them a treat. Eventually, you say jump and they do it. More importantly, if you switch to only rewarding them when you give the signal, they're less likely to jump in their own, which is nice when you want to stop a behavior.

All training is a variation of that, with complex behaviors needing to be broken down into small steps, like "sit", then "sit up" when you want them to raise their front end off the ground after sitting. If you want them to go get a beer from the fridge, you teach them what beer is by first teaching "touch", which is making contact with something on command, then having them touch a can and saying beer. Then you have them go to the kitchen. Then to the fridge. Then pull the rope, then get the beer out. Eventually, you chain the commands, and they learn to do it all when you tell them to "fetch me a beer". What's really fun is when you extend that and get them to bring one to whoever you point at, or to someone whose name they know. This example here isn't structured perfectly, it's just to give the idea.

Timing signal, behavior, and reward is the key to all of it. Works on humans too, btw.

But you never need to use negative reinforcement at all. To the contrary, doing so delays training, and makes it harder. All positive, all happy, all reward based. You can get the dumbest dog on the planet to follow basic commands with the right reward and some patience.

Now, food rewards tend to be the easiest. They're portable, they can be used almost anywhere, and most dogs respond to a treat enthusiastically. But our isn't the only possible reward, nor will it always be the magic reward for every dog. Sometimes play is the magic reward, sometimes it's praise or touch. But once you find the thing your dog wants the most, give it to them regularly and connect it to behaviors, and they'll learn fast.

My little girl? She was amazing. She was trained to go get a treat, bring it to you, give out to you, and wait until you gave it back before eating it. Took a week. But, if you said "go eat a treat", she would go, get one treat, bring it to where she could see you and then eat it. If you said to bring treats, she'd bring the bag and give it to you, prancing the entire way since she knew it was play/training time and she'd get lots of treats.

She knew the names of every toy she had. She would go to the box and bring whatever you asked for, then "clean up" at the end of a play session by taking all the toys to the box.

Which, that's going off topic, but I can't talk about dogs without thinking of her, and the two year date of when she was put down was not that far back, so I'm missing her extra hard lately. She was best girl. Fifteen years of love, and I hope the best girl or boy you're asking about brings your family just as much joy.

Hey, if one person's dick is in the other's mouth, they're homies for sure

nah, I'm not talking insurrection, I'm talking revolution. There's a difference. Idgaf if you like it or not, but the difference is there.

So, you know, bugger off

Be armed. Be ready. Be aware that you aren't alone, and there's people that will resist with you.

What duck?

That's the point, it's a non issue.

No, I'm saying we need to tear down the status quo and rebuild the nation entirely. This isn't about putting the other party in power, it's about changing everything and preventing the same bullshit here that happened in Germany almost a hundred years ago that everyone seems to have forgotten.

Don't be snide, btw, it isn't impressive when people are having a serious discussion about a subject that potentially could end in yet another nightmare for not just one country, but all of humanity.

It isn't just the US that's having a fascism problem, we just have the most obvious one

I mean, arm and train. That's what it always boils down to.

It doesn't matter if you're trying to prevent a takeover, resist one that's underway, or are attempting to serve as a resistance after a takeover, there is never any other answer.

If each and every person isn't ready and willing to fight, then it's already over before you start getting to organize. That means being armed, training to use those arms, and being willing to use them if it becomes necessary. Anything else is a circlejerk.

No worries :)

Well, there's fundamental human right. The right to rebellion, to revolution.

No single person out here can exercise that right. It has to be exercised en masse. But we do not have to accept things as they are.

Just a reminder that it isn't too late to tear this asshole and his cronies out of power

Nice to see someone else respect the perfection that is the Reuben :)

It's a toss up, but we have one chicken that prefers salad (as in leafy greens) as a treat over grains of any kind, even corn. The other is definitely a grain lover though

I've run across them a time or two :)

Monsieur, pistols at noon is the American tradition. High noon.

However, did you note that you had to specify water molecule to complete your objection? Even in your disagreement, you prove my point! Ha ha! I have parried your thrust and replaced it with my own!

I dig that idea too. His reasoning might be different, but it's the same basic spirit.

Ikr?

Dude. You are such a fucking prick. Intentionally picking out something that's damn near tangential to the point, then hyper focusing on it just to try and fuck with someone that wasn't talking to you in the first place.

Bugger off

Hmmm, favorite is hard to pin down since there's a discrepancy between pricing, availability, time to make, etc.

Like, I'm a pb&j fanatic for sure, but it isn't the sandwich I enjoy the most when eaten. But, if I could have things I enjoy more, more often, would that change? I don't really know.

That being said, I kinda doubt you meant anything that simple.

So, ingredients.

First is sourcing some good, thin sliced corned beef, with pastrami as an acceptable alternative.

Good sauerkraut. The exact type is variable, since what's good kraut is so relative. I prefer a Bavarian style seeded kraut.

Rye bread. This is where you have the most freedom since any rye bread will get the job done acceptably, but go after fresh, and ideally seeded rye. If rye isn't something you can handle, a good sourdough will work as well, but it isn't traditional.

You'll need spicy brown mustard, which isn't traditional, but it improves things.

Then you get into dressing. Originally, it was russian dressing, but thousand island has kinda become the default at many places that make a Reuben, and it's just as good. Just don't cheap out with store brand. You want something thick, and the cheap stuff is too runny, and since beef is expensive, why fuck around?

Cheese, the only option is swiss. Aged is best, but as long as you aren't cheaping out, go with what you like.

Now, you get butter and get it soft.

While the butter is softening, get out your skillet and get it up to medium heat. Then throw the corned beef in. Yup, heat that beef. Don't cook it, but let the edges brown a little and all of it heat up. Do not microwave it, just skip the step if you object that much.

As that's finishing its process, get your first slice of bread, and lightly butter. Get your cheese and condiments ready.

Once the beef is just browned at the edges, pull it and slap the first piece of bread in. Apply cheese, then a heaping dose of kraut. Apply dressing. Allow that to progress until the cheese juststarts to melt.

As that's ongoing, apply mustard to your other piece of bread, and get your beef into a neatly managed stack.

Once the cheese is starting to melt, the kraut will just be picking up heat. Let it sit for a bit before peeking under and checking the browning of the bread. Once it's almost there, place your beef. Then the bread slice, then butter said bread.

Remove the sandwich with a sturdy spatula. Place a small plate on top, then flip. Pick up the sandwich on said spatula and return to heat.

Why not flip? Because unless you're way more nimble than me, you're going to have kraut spillage, and maybe beef as well.

Why butter the bread when you're just going to put it on a plate almost immediately? Because when you spread butter, it gets into the crumb better than when you put butter in the pan, let it melt, and then put the sandwich on it. You end up with a deeper browning, but not the kind of slightly bitter browning you can get when the butter is melted all at once. The butter that's in the crumb melts out slowly, keeping the overall browning to the surface of the bread.

Yes, this does mean the bread is a little more buttery. If you think that's a bad thing, then do it your way, you poor, sad, no-butter enjoying fool.

Now, just let the bread brown slowly. If you have the heat high, you get well done bread and a barely warm pile of kraut in the middle. You keep the heat to medium high to medium, your the the same butter toasted bread, but you don't risk over cooking it, and the heat is even throughout the sandwich.

Watch the sides of the sandwich. When the cheese starts dripping a little from where it started, you're probably close to the meat side bread being a golden brown. So check it at that point. After that, just brown to your preferences, and pull the sandwich when done.

Let it sit on the plate while you get a pickle and whatever side you think your belly can hold, but will end up just sitting there uneaten because a Reuben is two meals, no matter what size it looks. But that pickle is going to serve to cleanse your palate between bites, perhaps every other bite, depending on how big you made the sandwich.

Obviously, this pickle should be a kosher dill, quarter sliced.

Why not have the pickle ready to go? Because that half minute to minute lets things rest. Even bread benefits from a brief rest after pan cooking. But it's a small rest, nothing like with whole cooked meats. Just enough for the surface of the bread to even its temp out so that the outside is just toasty enough. The difference between resting and not is minimal though.

Unless you're a Reuben obsessed freak, you might not even notice the difference from one sandwich to the next, unless you make multiple, time the rest and test at intervals to estimate the time for your preferences. Which, I guess would mean you are a Reuben obsessed freak. But the difference, no matter how tiny, is there.

Would most people give a flying fuck about the exact steps in order, and what tiny changes they make to how each flavor presents on the tongue, how the mouth feel shifts when the meat is between the kraut and cheese, or the dressing is used as a spread on the bread, etc? No, probably not. But they're philistines, and are not worthy of a truly great Reuben ;)

You know what the great thing about all this is?

If people decide to revolt and take back the country, we know exactly who to go after first.