Aces Wild (21 page)

association
—A connection between two different things. It’s important to help your dog make associations between training and rewards like treats, praise, and attention from you.

break
—A dog who doesn’t wait to be released by his trainer is breaking the command. For example, if I told Ace to stay and I left the room, he would most likely break his stay before I returned and released him from it.

conditioning
—Getting a dog used to something or to doing or not doing something—like not jumping up when greeting people.

handling
—Working with your dog to teach him behaviors is called handling, and the people who train and show dogs in obedience competitions are called handlers.

marking
—Doing something like providing a treat, praise, or a clicking sound to signal to a dog that he did the right thing. This immediate response marks the behavior and tells the dog,
Great job!

recall
—Getting your dog to come when called—ideally, the first time!

reinforcement
—Sending a message to your dog. Positive reinforcement is best, because it tells your dog,
Yes!! Do more of that!

release
—Giving the dog a command to let him know that he is released from the obligation to keep doing what you commanded him to do. For example, after commanding “stay,” you need to release the dog with a command like “okay.”

repetition
—It’s how you get to Carnegie Hall! Practice makes perfect, so do it again and again and again. Repetition is the key to training a dog.

treats
—Yummy small snacks provided to your dog as rewards during training!

bissel
—A little bit of something—often, but not always, food. My grandma used to say “Nem a bissel,” which means “Take a little bite” or “Have a little taste.” In other words, eat some!

bupkis
—Nothing.

dreidel
—From the Yiddish word
dreyen
(“to spin or turn”) it basically means “a little spinning thing.” Which is exactly what it is.

facacta
—Stupid and ridiculous.

feh
—Yuck. Not to be confused with
meh
, which means “not terrible, but not so terrific, either.”

finagle
—This word sounds Yiddish, but my grandpa insists that, technically, it isn’t. It means “to get what you want by tricking someone or bending the rules.” But I think my grandpa says it to mean “to work the system.”

fress
—To wolf down food. One who does so is a fresser.
For example, “Ace, don’t be such a fresser. Chew that dog biscuit before swallowing it.”

gedaingst
—Remember. As in: “I told you I knew what I was doing, gedaingst?”

gelt
—Money or coins (real or chocolate—yum!).

kipa
—The Hebrew word for
yarmulke
, which is Yiddish. Both words are for the flat cap that some Jewish people (like Jeremy) wear some of the time and some Jewish people wear all of the time (and some, like me, don’t wear at all).

kugel
—A food that’s somewhere between a pudding and a casserole. It’s made with either noodles (noodle kugel) or potatoes (potato kugel) and a lot of other stuff to hold it together. Kugel comes in other flavors, too—apple, zucchini, you name it. Ace says there are as many different kinds of kugel as there are fish in the sea, but as far as I know, there’s no such thing as fish kugel.

kvetch
—To complain, often repetitively. Someone who does this—no names mentioned—is a kvetch, though of course he would never admit to it.

latkes
—Delicious potato pancakes fried in oil and often served at Hanukkah (to commemorate the miraculous oil that lasted for eight nights).

mazel tov
—I always thought this was just the Hebrew phrase for congratulations, but my grandpa says it originally came from Yiddish.
Tov
means “good” in both languages, and
mazel
is the Yiddish word for
“fortune” or “luck.” Remember that when I get to the word
schlimazel!

megilla
—A long detailed story.

mensch
—A good person, someone you can really count on to do the right thing. Often, mensches are also kind of dorky, but that’s okay too.

meshuggener, meshugge
—A crazy person is a meshuggener, and a crazy thing (or dog) is meshugge.

mishegoss
—This comes from the same word as
meshuggener
and
meshugge
do and it sort of means “craziness,” though it is more like “nuttiness” or “wackiness.”

nosh
—It means “snack” and it also means “to snack.” So you can nosh on a nosh!

nu
—This means something like “So?” or “Well?” But my grandpa says “So nu?” which seems redundant to me, but I would never try telling him that.

oy vey, vey iz mir
—
Oy vey
is like “oh no,” and
vey iz mir
is like an
oy vey
with extra oomph!

pishen
—This actually means “someone who pees”! No wonder my grandpa says it to my dog so much. But it also means “a little kid” or “a little guy.”

potchke
—Ace says this means “to make a mess” or “to do something carelessly.”
Potch
means “slap,” so it kind of means “to do something in a slapdash way.” But I think of it as meaning “fiddle with” because my mom tells Sam not to potchke with things like the locks on the car doors.

rugelach
—“Little corners” or “little twists” of dough made with sour cream, cinnamon, and often filled with chocolate, or jam. Bubbles made the best rugelach. They were delicious!

schlemiel
—A fool or an idiot—not to be confused with a schlimazel.

schlep
—To drag something. For example, my brother, Sam, schlepped his dirty old stuffed whale around with him everywhere until my mother made him stop.

schlimazel
—A super-unlucky person. As Ace explains it, “A schlemiel is a guy who spills his soup—onto a schlimazel’s lap.” Remember how I said
mazel tov
means “good luck”? The
mazel
in
schlimazel
also means “luck”—but it is the
other
kind of luck!

schmaltz
—Chicken fat, which should be thrown out, if you ask me. Or spread on toast, if you ask my grandpa.
Schmaltzy
is a word I’ve heard my parents use to describe extra-corny or sappy movies, songs, or decorations. I have no idea why.

schmatte
—A rag or something that used to be nice but is completely worn out and has turned into a rag. For example, a stuffed whale that you schlep around soon becomes a schmatte.

schtickl
—A little piece of something, usually something good to eat. From what I can tell, a schtickl is bigger than a bissel, but not by much.

sha
—It’s sort of like “Shhh!” You say it to tell someone to hush or be quiet.

shammes
—This means “helper,” and that’s why you call the Hanukkah candle you use to help light all the other candles the shammes.

shivah
—Meaning “seven” in Hebrew, this is what you call the week after someone in your close family dies. When Bubbles, my grandma, died, lots of people came to visit while we sat shivah. Almost all of them brought food—mostly danishes and deli platters.

shvitz
—A steam bath or sauna where people would get together and sweat a lot in the olden days.

sufganiyot
—Jelly donuts fried in oil and served at Hanukkah. Like latkes, these are traditional because of the story of the oil lasting eight nights. Works for me!

tchotchke
—A little toy or collectible. You keep tchotchkes on a tchotchke shelf.

tuches
—Put it this way: if someone gave you a potch in tuches, it would hurt to sit down afterward. Yup, you guessed it!

tzedakah
—Charity, but it doesn’t mean
just
that. It also sort of means “helping your community.” Ace says it’s not only what you do for other people, but it’s how you do it. He calls it “the most important seasoning.” He also says the three keys to happiness are love, tzedakah, and prunes. I’m not sure I agree with that one hundred percent, but who am I to argue with him?