Taking my cue from my home town Portland’s reputation as a green city, I’m writing a book for Wiley Publishing about how to “do pets” as eco-sensitively as possible.

“Pets and the Planet: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pets” will help pet owners select, feed, and care for their pets with a focus on what’s best for the environment. Here’s where you come in. I’d like your questions and tips about “going green” with pets. To earn your help, I’ll give you this sneak preview tailored for Portland area residents.

Dog poop disposal is a big topic, but Portland residents will get a break after 2009, when curbside residential food waste recycling starts. The commercial composting temperatures will allow us to compost dog poop safely. Until then, no composting dog waste, even if you have compostable bags. It’s not the bag, it’s the parasites in the bags.

For dog waste disposal, the bag to use is the “BioBag.” or an equivalent that is biodegradable and compostable. Look for the green logo (see photo) to assure the product you buy is 100% biodegradable and compostable. This certificate is based on the strictest standard, the European one.

Certificates that look like the logo below show that the bag is intended to be composted in a municipal or commercial facility and meets U.S. standards (read “not as strict as European standards” for composting. [Insert white logo]

Cat friends, please know that clay-based litters are strip-mined, with all that implies; the top layer of earth removed, and clay stripped off. Use a plant-based litter if your cat can adapt. The gel-pearl litter also works well and lower quantities are needed. However, the litter is expensive and does not adhere to the main principle of recycling, which is to reuse. In either event, if you use kitty pan liners, look for the green logo above.

If you just don’t “do” poop, Alan Pietrovito, a professional pooper-scooper, owns Portland’s Doody Calls. Passionate about protecting the environment, Alan believes he has a responsibility to show leadership, so he looks beyond his current business in proposing a local methane digester for pet waste in Portland.

Opportunities exist to make green choices other than about pet waste disposal. We also make choices about the type and source of our pets, what we feed them, how we supply their daily needs, what kind of services we use (vet, groomer, daycare), how we exercise our pets, and how we mange our interior environment for household health. I’ll be writing about these topics in the months ahead.

I need your help in making this book as useful as possible. Please post your questions and tips below. For posting tips or suggesting stories I can use in the book, you’ll receive a pet-related prize.

Last week my best friend Bette got the dreaded call.  A neighbor confessed she was ready to strangle Bette’s dog for barking, barking, barking.  A horrified Bette explained she didn’t know her dog was barking when home alone.  Many of you are like Bette.

Barking dogs are serious problems.  Not only does your dog suffer, but your neighbors suffer mightily. Worse, there is no “quick fix” for the barking dog.  Sorry folks, but that’s the truth.

You need to take immediate and decisive action about a barking dog, whether you’re the neighbor or the owner of the persistent pooch.

The first issue is discussing the barking issue.  If you’re the dog’s owner, let your neighbors know you’re aware of the issue and you’re working on it.  If you’re the neighbor, the dog’s family may not know about the incessant cry for attention. 

In Multnomah County, Oregon, where I live, continuous noise lasting 10 minutes or intermittent noise lasting 30 minutes is unlawful, and is punishable by a $100 fine.  Worse is the ill will of those around you.  These are consequences that can force you to give up your dog.

For those neighbors who can’t summon the courage to discuss this problem with their offending neighbors, Multnomah County Animal Services will send a “barking dog letter” to your neighbor, along with a brochure designed to help the neighbor understand and correct the problem.

Dogs bark for a variety of reasons.  If your dog woofs when he’s home alone, he’s bored, uncomfortable, or anxious.  Keep your dog inside when you’re not at home.  Make sure your dogs’ basic needs for food, the opportunity to pee and poop, and something to do during the day are met.  I use the Kong treat dispenser when I’m away from home for more than a couple of hours.  This electronic device rolls out a treat every couple of hours, enough to keep my dog occupied for a few minutes between naps. 

Exercise before you leave home and after you return keeps your dog ( and you) in a more relaxed state of mind.  As trainers say, “A tired dog is a happy dog.” In the same way you’d take your child to play in the park before you put him to bed, take your dog.  Exercise is necessary, not optional.

Bark collars, including a “strong shot of scent” citronella, the high-frequency sound, and the mild shock collars, can be aids but do not solve the whole problem. Dog daycare may be expensive, but can be an excellent short-term way to increase your dog’s exercise (and keep your neighbors calm) while you continue to work through the steps to solve your dog’s noisemaking.

Dogs are social animals.  You brought this dog into your home to provide companionship. This is a two-way relationship.  You have a responsibility to provide companionship to your dog.  We all fall down in our responsibilities from time to time.  When we do, we simply start again.

Do yourself a favor and print the information at http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dbcs/pets/BarkingDogAdvice.pdf.  Excessive barking is a major reason that dogs lose their homes. Ask your neighbors for help.  Maybe someone in the neighborhood would baby-sit your dog, or walk her at lunchtime.  Regardless, your neighbors will be thrilled to let you know when your dog is and isn’t barking and they will be glad to know you’re trying to be a responsible dog owner.

My friend Bette now has a crate, a citronella collar, and a regular appointment at the doggy daycare.  She also has told her neighbors what she’s doing about the problem and asked for their help in solving it.  I’ve got my fingers crossed.  Bette adopted a 9 year old Golden Retriever—one that needed a home and has a loving one now.  Let’s hope they can hang on together—my friend, her dog, and the neighbors.

Need a trainer to assist you with your barking dog?  Find one at http://www.thiswildlife.com/links/trainer.  Have a “stop the barking” story? Post at http://www.thiswildlife.com/pets/nature_science/more/155/ to enter this month’s drawing for a “Scat Mat,” a sure-fire way to keep pets off your antique chair or away from the front door.

If your pets are like mine, they thrive on household hustle and bustle.  Over the summer, our bustle index was high—kid and dog visitors, hikes and swims.  That’s over. Starting this week, we’re at work and school. Our faithful companions are dozing through Judge Judy and Oprah so they’re fresh as daisies with enough energy to make our homecoming memorable.

The companion and family arrive home late in the afternoon, fresh as a scrap of last month’s rawhide chew. Even before the door opens our pets greet us at the top of their lungs.  Even fish flap their gills, creating a tsunami in the aquarium.  Staggering to the kitchen for a cold drink and a potato chip, your last nerve exposed, you discover someone has chewed the window sill.

Someone else has mangled the chair seat.  (The tooth marks are distinctive, as we learned on CSI). Your birds’ calls, your dogs’ barks, and your cats clawing become louder, more incessant. Every fiber of your being screams, “SHUT UP. LEAVE ME ALONE.” Every claw, paw, tail and vocal device of your pets screams “.  I’VE BEEN HOME ALONE ALL DAY, WAITING FOR YOU, OH EPICENTER OF MY UNIVERSE.”

Since we opposable-thumbed caretakers evolved to be more intelligent than our pets, try planning “Home Alone” preventive pet routines.

Before family members fly the coop, heap attention on your pets.  When you distribute breakfast bars and bag lunches, feed a snack or two to your birds. Be sure to feed the dog and cat. Talk with your pet (and your children), using their names.  If you can’t remember their names, sound happy and drink another cup of coffee.

Because birds communicate through calls, set up a radio or CD player for daylong bird entertainment. Some cat owners provide aquariums (with sealed tops, of course) or window-viewable bird feeders as cat daytime entertainment.  Provide a chew toy and toss a Kong with a frozen treat inside to busy your dog as you leave the house. A busy brain equals a happy dog.

When you dash home before soccer practice, grab a leafy celery stick for your avian kid and talk to him.  He may know where your kids’ soccer shoes are.  Pet him, and say bye-bye.

Put your dog in the car and take him (and the soccer shoes) with you.  You can spend the time walking the dog in the adjoining park and chanting mantras.

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When the family returns to the roost in the evening, greet your pets first.  Get everyone in the family to help you. If you haven’t taken your dog outside since you left home, get him right outside.  If your bird is comfortable out of the cage, take him into the bathroom, while you wash your face and brush your hair.

Check your messages via speakerphone while you play ball with your dog or bird. They want to do what you are doing. Only your cat knows what she wants to do, and telling you ruins her mystique. After dinner your bird or cat (not both at once, of course) love to perch near your recliner or on your lap while you watch television or do homework.  Remember, dogs have difficulty perching anywhere.

Smooth your back to school routine into soothing pet practices. When companions provide what pets need, both go to the head of the class.

Have a home alone routine that works with your animals? Post a comment below to enter this month’s drawing for a “Scat Mat,” a sure-fire way to keep pets from your antique chair or away from the front door.

Next week: a home-alone problem with teeth:  barking dogs

As my readers know, my house is full of “restless pet” syndrome. I had a chance to get away to Seattle for a day and took it. My father spent the day with my animals. He arrived at 9 am and left at 10 pm watched television and read. He reported, “Your dog did not bark and the birds did not make noise.” I considered the possibility that he had slept through chaos, and then shrugged the animals’ reaction as appropriate to a new person in the house.

Two days later, my dog Onyx regained her obsession with the activities of the next door neighbors and every other person and car that passed the house. Since I live on a busy street, she alerted every 30 seconds all day long. Birdie playtime erupted into an all-out fight. Feathers were yanked and my sweet but not-so-bright cockatiel was battered in the crossed beaks of Nick the angry Senegal and my exasperated African Gray.

My Dad and I took the three birds for a post-dust-up physical. The diagnosis was bruising and broken feathers. No internal injuries. The vet and I discussed the avian hormones and caging and playtime options to keep the birdie tempers in check.

On the way home, my Dad observed that he hadn’t had any discontent while he was in the house, but I seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble with the animals’ behavior. He politely suggested that perhaps the problem was me.

I admitted, as I had in last week’s column, that I had failed to give my animals enough exercise. He suggested exercise wasn’t the only issue. Maybe the problem was that I was “all nerved up.” He followed up with a suggestion that I try to do too much. I don’t know where he gets this idea.

My next book project is with the agent and may or may not sell. I haven’t heard from a client whose assignments I depend on for a living wage. I have a class coming up and I’m worried about leaving my animals. I’m working hard on my physical fitness. My yard looks like the jungle. The house needs new siding. I can’t make any progress on my novel for reasons that are not clear to me.

My father is right and irritating. Animals pick up on our moods. If I’m tense, the dog is tense. The birds are tense.

Exercise is helpful, but we also need fun and relaxation. Me. You. Our pets. It’s a whole household kind of thing.

I asked my Dad to help out by grilling salmon for dinner while I swim at community center pool. After our dinner, the birds and the dog will enjoy tiny tidbits of salmon afterward. Tomorrow I’ll focus on the new project and try to forget about everything else. Lucky for me my father can help solve the problem as well as identify it. Could your kids or your parents help, even in a small way? Maybe you’d feel better with a picnic dinner and a walk. As summer comes to a close, maybe we need more enjoying and fewer projects. Just a thought.

If you have suggestions on how to relax more with your animals, post a comment. We need all the help we can get.

My pets’ spring fling has morphed into a full scale summer assault on my good will.  Last night, I composed my ad:  “Pet writer seeking peace and quiet seeks loving home for three parrots and one dog.”

Between a new book project and my father’s move to Portland in May, I’ve been spending the minimum time with my pets. Onyx, an active six-year-old Doberman, has been reduced from two walks a day to three long walks each week and liberal use of the fenced backyard.  My birds, used to long days outside and plenty of stimulating interaction, have been subjected to a grumbling “Here’s your food and please be quiet thank you very much” twice each day.  Maybe it’s been a little better than that, but not much.  The results—overload barking and screeching that may bring Animal Control to the door at any moment.

When life intervenes, we spend less time than we should with each other. Nerves fray. The situation escalates until someone makes a move.

As usual, my pets were ahead of me.  Before I could place the ad, they staged an intervention.

They demanded my presence downstairs at 5:45 a.m.  My dog danced that cute ballet dance she does every morning.  “I’m so glad to see you.  How about a pee and some food?” I growled at her.  She slunk off to her bed.

The birds twisted my ears with their version of the dawn chorus. (Think the sound of a thousand rusty gates swinging.) Their heckles broke the sound barrier, necessitating closing the windows, shutting off the flow of cool air.

I got hot and I don’t mean just the air temperature. My dog is a sweetie, anxious to please, but anxious in general when she doesn’t get enough exercise.  The birds don’t give a rip about my ability to write in peace and quiet. They began ripping my ear drums this morning.  I considered the headline on KGW.com, “Pet columnist strangles pets….” Not a good role model for my readers.

Once in awhile, each of us who take care of pets must reexamine how we’re doing-- especially those of us who dispense pet advice for a living. 

Nick, my Senegal parrot shouted in his unnaturally shrill mechanical voice, “Pet writer, heal yourself!  Check out Chapter 6 in your own darn book.”

So I did.  I opened “Conures,” my book on parrots, and to the section “Solving Behavior Problems.”

“It may be difficult to see, but the root of … behavior problems is almost always the … human companion. Giving your … attention each day will help prevent behavior problems from developing.”

The chapter lays out strategies for keeping your parrot happy.  Onyx placed a well-manicured forepaw on page 89 and cocked her head as if to say, “Are you doing these things?” She doesn’t talk, but then she doesn’t need to.

Nick the Senegal screeches, “No. No. No.” The African Gray, his feathers fluffed, looks inscrutable and irritated. Pili the Cockatiel bleats in her incessant way that makes me want to end my life.

“Okay, okay.  We’ll go back to the regular schedule.” I opened my daybook and scheduled the dog walks (even ten minutes, twice a day for a dog that has access to a back yard will help).  I resolved to get each bird into the outdoor cage for an hour of breeze and nature watching each day.  I scheduled the time to chop my special bird salad mix once a week.  I added ten minutes to bathe the birds each afternoon.

This is the basic stuff pet caretakers need to do.  Honestly, an hour a day for four animals is not too much to ask.  I can give the time five minutes here and ten minutes there, between other commitments during the day.

Sometimes it takes the intervention of the resident pets to rein us in.  “Good work, boys.” Call off the ads.  Call off the lurid “pet writer goes crazy headlines.” I’m going back to the basics. 

If you need the basic “regain control” list because your pets are driving you crazy, sign up for my free e-newsletter. If you have a tip to turn around pet overload please share by posting a comment.

You: Backyard planting, trimming, adding cool furniture and features.
Your dog:  Planning a home-alone assault on your backyard improvements.

You share your back yard with your dog. You may resist this notion, train her to stay out of your heirloom tomatoes and place “scat mats” on that extravagant chaise lounge that you had to have.
The fact is, your dog has nothing to do except break your resistance. And you will break. You will re-think your yard design. As my Doberman said when I delivered her peanut butter treats during a stay-out-of-the-tomatoes training session, “You all crumble, eventually.”

My dog Onyx’s advice (and I have come to agree) is to plan your back yard around your dog. Like yours, dogs’ backyard preferences come from genetics, personality, age, fitness level, and early life experiences.
Most dogs achieve greatness in basic backyard sports —the nap, the popular “poop and roll,” and the “watch the world go by.”
Some dogs excel at guarding (against the dangerous flying crows and jays), hunting (the irresistibly flapping, scurrying and slithering flies, mice, and garter snakes), excavating (a tunnel to the cute female dog down the street), collecting (sticks and stones), and gardening (a.k.a. destroying prized foliage by shredding and trampling).

Whatever your dog’s natural choices, don’t fight if you want to cling to your sanity. If your dog is a digger, give him a place to dig. If he collects sticks and stones, give him things to collect. If he’s a shredder, give him something he’s encouraged to shred as an alternative to specimen roses or the drapes around your gazebo.
If your mother-in-law expects to see the Victorian garden globe on her next visit, build an enclosure and secure the globe inside. Unsupervised dogs violate their training, as surely as we cheat on our diets. Dogs are better than people, but not that much better.

For dogs that dig, design a dig pit. Use sand which gives your dog a visual cue about where you allow digging and where you don’t. Try a half-barrel planter as dig spot for a small dog. For larger dogs, try logs, cinder blocks, or stock fencing lined with tarpaulin as your “pit architecture.”
As to location, get a jump on your dog’s thinking. Locate dig pits in the shade, since your dog will try to dig a cool place to lie in summer.

Dogs favor different elevations in the back yard. Dogs love to lounge atop a picnic table or chaise lounge, a pile or rocks, or a berm, and watch the neighborhood from a different vantage point.
Some backyard athletes prefer swimming, or at least splashing as cross training. A kiddy pool could provide hours of summer entertainment.

Remember, dogs want to be with us and most dogs don’t exercise themselves. Twenty minutes of play with your dog, fetch or playing keep away, provides more exercise than most dogs get in the yard alone. Play also builds your bond with your dog. When you have a dog, it’s about compromise. When you have a dog, you need to give the dog time, not always in the form that you want.

My dog said, “You all cave, eventually.” I call it compromise. Look how well I’ve done. Berm: check. Dig pit:  check. Stick pile: check. Kid pool:  check. Oops, look at the time. If I don’t show up for playtime as agreed, Onyx is into my heirloom tomatoes.

If you have a backyard story you’d like to share, please do make a post.  Share the wealth of ideas (and dog humor).

I don’t shop at a pet bakery or bake my dog treats. My dog makes do with store bought treats. She loves “Charlee Bears” pet treats from Trader Joe’s. Liver flavored for her, and small and non-greasy for me. What’s not to like?  Try them. You’ll see.

As your gift, please share your cat or dog’s favorite treat with us. Which pet bakery is best? Share a treat recipe and tell us your pet’s name and type. Better yet, send us a photo of your pet with the favorite treat.

Most of what I’ve learned about animals, I’ve learned from people who keep animals—from pet companions to zookeepers.

Carol’s tip 1: When I’m away from home, I crate my dog. Properly trained, fed, pottied, exercised, and watered, my dog happily remains in a properly-sized crate for up to eight hours. I don’t feel comfortable leaving her unsupervised. She’s too curious.

Carol’s tip 2: I keep the predator (dog) and the prey animals (parrots) separated by a four-foot buffer. When I’m home and the dog roams inside, I close the baby gate four feet in front of the indoor bird aviary. The parrots can use the lower portion of their cage without fear. This four-foot safety area I call our “demilitarized zone.” The birds depend on it. The dog hates it, as the barrier separates her from the food the parrots spill onto the floor.

Let’s hear from you, whether you’re a pet novice or a veterinarian. What are your best pet safety tips?

Most of what I’ve learned about animals, I’ve learned from people who keep animals—from pet lovers to zookeepers. Let’s hear from you, whether you’re a pet novice or a veterinarian. What are your best pet safety tips?

No sad stories, please. Give us your learning, not your pain. Let’s stay upbeat, practical, and attentive to all the different types of pets, including fish and ferrets, felines and Floating frogs, in addition to dogs and cats.

Carol’s tip 1: When I’m out for the day, I crate my dogs.
Properly trained, fed, pottied, exercised, and watered, my dogs happily remain in a properly sized crate for up to eight hours. I don’t feel comfortable leaving my dogs unsupervised. They’re too curious.

Carol’s tip 2: I keep the predator (dogs)and the prey animals (parrots) separated by a four foot buffer.
When I’m home and the dogs roam inside, I close the baby gate (as you would use for human babies) set up four feet in front of the indoor bird aviary. The parrots can use the lower portion of their cage without fear. This four-foot safety area I call our “demilitarized zone.” The birds depend on it. The dogs hate it, as the barrier separates them from the food the parrots spill onto the floor.