Bake Me Home Girls Encourage Philanthropy
Have you heard about Bake Me Home? It’s a fabulous Cincinnati nonprofit founded by two twin sisters (Emma and Amy Bushman, now 11) and their mother 
(Alison Bushman). I wrote a story about them in a previous post. Please click here to read it.
Emma entered the ‘Go Orange for No Kid Hungry’ national essay contest and I was able to get a copy of it. I don’t know about you but I find it so uplifting to read about philanthropy from the minds of youth.
Bake Me Home is a charitable organization dedicated to promoting volunteerism and providing disadvantaged moms and kids with direct services that encourage shared family experiences. It was established in 2008 and is a Better Business Bureau approved charity.
It was Christmas Eve-Eve 2010 at a homeless family shelter. My mom, my sister, and I were reading to the kids there. A girl, older than I was at the time, wanted to read one of the books out loud too. She got up in front of everybody and began to read. She was so determined to read that book, even though the kids around her quickly lost interest as she struggled to pronounce the words. I love to read, and it was clear that she liked to read, but just because I had been given a better opportunity to learn, I was a better reader than she was. It occurred to me that it’s probably hard to learn when your hungry all the time and moving around a lot. I would be absolutely devastated if I couldn’t read.
I left the shelter that night thinking a lot about how my life was different from the kids who live there. I spend quite a bit of time hanging out at shelters because my mom, my sister, and I have our own charity called Bake Me Home that provides services to families from homeless and battered women’s shelters, but this night really brought the differences into perspective. Until then I thought about things like the fact that I have my own room, and get to do extra activities like tennis lessons. That night was the first time I realized what a difference there was in our education too. My mom and I both cried in the car on the way home that night. She said it made her sad to think about what a beautiful reader that determined girl could be if she had all the advantages that we did.
Well, we know that we can’t do everything to help homeless kids, but we can let them know them even strangers care about them, and we can help them buy some food. In our Bake Me Home Tote Bags, we give out a $20 grocery store gift card (among other things!). Just last year we gave out 342 $20 gift cards. That’s $6,840 worth of grocery money to hungry families. If I win this essay contest I will donate the money to my non-profit organization so that we can continue to help these kids.
I still think about that girl, and how hard it must be to learn to read when you are hungry, and this is why ending childhood hunger in America is important to me.
Bake Me Home was recently featured on The List
Ohio National Victorian Holiday Village Is Almost Here
There is something so magical about the holiday season and so many fun traditions. This is one.
For the eleventh year, Cincinnati’s Ohio National Financial Services is bringing back its Victorian Holiday Village. It features child-sized houses, decorated scenes, cookies and cocoa, free 5 x 7″ photos with Santa, and more. The ONtime Express, a miniature train, will take guests from the parking garage to the Village, and balloon artist elves. Returning this year is the Century House. A miniature scale replica of a Habitat for Humanity home celebrates Ohio National’s 100th anniversary commitment to build 10 new Habitat for Humanity homes in the Cincinnati community over the next five years.
It all takes place at Ohio National Financial Services at the intersection of I-71 and Pfeiffer Rd.
The Village is open:
Friday, November 30 from 6-8:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 1 from 5-8:30 p.m.
Thursday, December 6 from 6-8:30 p.m.
Friday, December 7 from 6-8:30 p.m.
While admission to the event is free, all guests are asked to bring a nonperishable food item (no glass containers, please), which will be donated to the Freestore Foodbank.
The Village will remain lit throughout December, but the refreshments, photos and entertainment will only be provided during the four nights above.
Thanksgiving Food Safety For Dogs
Our Thanksgiving meal is my favorite of the whole year. Yes, much of that is because of the company I am surrounded by. But also, there is SO MUCH incredible food!
I want to remind you, however, that not all Thanksgiving food is good for our dogs. Below are some things your dog should avoid:
Rich, fatty foods (turkey skins, gravy, etc,) as these can contribute to pancreatitis – an inflammation of the digestive gland that is painful and can be serious–requiring emergency veterinary assistance.
Cooked bones that can splinter
Baking strings from the turkey
Onions (used a lot in holiday stuffing) that can lead to canine anemia
Grapes and raisins whose toxins can cause kidney failure in pets
Chocolate is an absolute no-no as it can cause death
Caffeine and coffee are also toxic
Cake batter that has raw eggs
Bread dough that expands in your dog’s stomach and causes pain and bloat, which is fatal unless treated IMMEDIATELY
For tips on preventing dog behavior problems at Thanksgiving, please read my blog post at this link.
Training: On Solving Pet Behavior Problems
Preventing Dog Behavior Problems At Thanksgiving
NOTE: I have a new pet behavior blog located at http://www.SoMuchPETential.com/blog. Thanks!
Thanksgiving is quickly coming upon us. Oh to taste the turkey…stuffing…sweet potatoes…and pumpkin pie. I can hardly wait! So can Sam….and I bet your favorite pooch too.
So, let’s plan ahead. Sharing your meal with your guests AND your dog doesn’t necessarily have to be part of the holiday. The time to work on 
teaching your dog new skills is now – not dinner time on November 22.
Let’s put our applied behavior analysis thinking caps on and brainstorm. Remember, ABA is a systematic approach to solving behavior problems by changing the environment in which the behavior occurs.
We ask ourselves “What happened IMMEDIATELY prior to the behavior (antecedent) to set the ball rolling for the behavior?” and “What happened IMMEDIATELY after the behavior to reinforce it (consequence)?”
I’m going to simplify it and use for the sake of this column that the antecedent is ‘guests sitting at the dinner table with unbelievably savory food on dishes in front of them.’ The behavior is your dog bumping or scratching guests in their seats. (We’ll call this ‘begging.’) The consequence is that eventually your dog may get either attention or turkey or jackpot – BOTH!
How can we change the environment to set your dog up for success? If you know in advance that this is highly predictable behavior, you can use antecedent strategies to give less value to the begging. Some ideas? Satiate your dog BEFORE you sit down by feeding him in advance, redirect his attention by giving him a tasty steak bone to chew on or a foraging toy that will keep his attention for awhile, take him for a long walk or run prior to the meal to increase the value of resting behavior.
Another idea would be to teach your dog – in advance – an alternative behavior that will reap him the same or more reinforcing value than what he would get if he begged while also removing all positive consequences of begging. Remember, as his teacher, his ability to learn is dependent on your reliability (and EVERYONE in your household) to quickly reinforce the behavior you want to see – and every time he does the behavior in the beginning.
So, begin by teaching the alternative behavior (like sitting or laying down) and get it reliably on cue. Once on cue start teaching him to hold that behavior for longer durations before delivering reinforcement. Then, you can cue him to do the behavior before you sit down to a meal and reinforce it. At the same time, if he begs, you can simply push your plate in to the center of the table and turn your back to him while sitting. Practice. Practice Practice.
Dogs are pretty smart. If ‘you’ teach him that begging only gets people to turn away and push food aside but sitting or laying down gets a nifty treat, guess which choice he’ll make?
If you have a dog who is competing with our Sam for the title, World Champion Counter-Surfer, remember, often times the feat is carried out when your back is turned. (We know this from experience.) The simplest solution is eliminating access to the reinforcement that maintains the behavior. In other words, always be cognizant of being sure that tasty food is kept far enough from the counter edge that your dog can not reach it.
