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All of the articles below were submitted by super cool Rovering Reporter: Bailey Olah

This article is from Dogtime:http://dogtime.com/green-your-dog.html

How to Green Your Dog

1. Choose eco-friendly dog supplies.
There's oodles to choose from, and our green product reviews can help you separate what's worth buying and what's not. What to look for: material that will biodegrade, has been or can be recycled, wasn't treated with flame retardants, and is free of plastics. When your dog's sick of his toys, swap with your dog-parent friends rather than tossing them.

2. Be a green pooper-scooper.
The ideal is to flush your dog's poop, so it will get the same treatment as human waste; you can even buy flushable, biodegradable poop bags. The runner-up option is tossing a biodegradable poop bag in the trash; composting dog poop is controversial, since its bacteria could make you sick if it's spread on your veggie garden, but there are instructions on how to do it here.

Whatever you do, always clean up after your dog. Not only does leaving poop on the ground pretty much guarantee that you'll be reincarnated as a dung beetle, it can make people and animals sick when the poop gets washed down storm drains and into waterways.

3. Leash your dog in wildlife areas.
We all love to watch happy dogs running free. But even if your dog doesn't fancy herself a hunter, chasing and barking at the resident wildlife and charging around their habitat does more damage than you might think. Save the off-leash play for dog parks.

4. When fighting fleas, go with the least toxic options.
How green you go in the battle against fleas depends on how much time you're willing to spend and how badly you want to keep pesticides out of your home and off your dog. You can download a guide to fighting fleas without pesticides here. If you must use pesticides, go with a topical, spot-on treatment rather than sprays, powders, or collars. If you have real winters where you live, talk to your vet about using the treatments only during the warmer flea season.

5. Cook dog food yourself or buy locally made, organic food.
As much as possible, use organic veggies and antibiotic- and hormone-free meat and dairy. By cutting out the transportation and packaging of commercial food, you'll do the planet an extra favor. If you haven't got time to play chef for your dog, check out holistic pet supply stores for locally made, planet-friendly foods.

6. Think before you toss.
Medications, flea treatments, shampoos--all can wind up polluting soil and water if you simply toss them in the trash. To figure out how to get rid of them safely, contact your local solid waste agency (call 1-800-CLEAN-UP to get the number or look in your phone book).

7. Green your kitty too.
Our feline friends do their share of environmental damage. They kill millions of birds each year, and much of the litter they use comes from strip mining--and then piles up in landfills. Cats who do their business outside pollute the water and soil with toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that can make pregnant women and the immunocompromised sick.

A few ways to make your kitty more eco-friendly: Keep her inside, which is safer for her as well as the local birds. If you let her outside, you could try outfitting her with a cat bib to prevent her from hunting--bells generally aren't effective--or only letting her play in fenced areas. As for kitty litter, there are now many more eco-friendly litters to choose from.




Greening up Right

Article by Tom Barthel, Spring 2009 Natural Dog Magazine

As much as you might think your dog is the greenest part of the family, canines do impact the environment in negative ways. Although their carbon pawprints may not be as large as ours, we can help reduce their impact on the environment in big ways through a few small changes in the way we care for them.
The single biggest way dogs affect the environment negatively is with their waste-or at least how we treat their waste. Each year, tons of dog waste vends up in landfills. By taking valuable space and potentially adding parasites to area lakes and rivers, dog waste does it's share of environmental damage. Other aspects of dog care impact the environment, too. Read on for ways you can change this.

1.Bio bags. When buried in landfills, ordinary plastic bags take decades to decompose.By choosing bio-degradable bags to collect dog waste, and depending on what landfill it ends up in, you reduce that time by mere months. With bags made from cornstarch, which degrades when wet, your dog's poop decomposes much more quickly.

2.Local Shopping. Adding a bit of green to you pet's diet- in the form of a few fresh fruits and vegetables- can do as much good for the planet as for your dog.
Shopping at your local farmer's market for fruits and vegetables you can share with your pet does more than boost the economy. By getting at least some of your dog's food from local sources, you decrease the amount of fossil fuel it takes to ship food.

3.Erosion Control.Even a day at the dog park or a scenic hike can be an opportunity to do what is right for the Earth. When repeated dog paw traffic compacts soil, plants die. When plants no longer hold the dirt in place, topsoil washes into area waterways and makes it difficult to grow anything green in the area again. Give the grass a break, and varyn your walking routes or use natural paths created by other wilderness creatures when you enjoy the unpaved outdoors.

4.Tub time. You pet is likely to enjoy the spirit of conversation, particularly if he is not fond of taking baths. Though inevitable, washing up, doesn't have to be wasteful.Before running the bath, have all your supplies at hand. The readier you are, the less likely you are to leave the water running while you fetch shampoo. Consider using a handheld wand attachment with an on off valve so you can wash, rinse and repeat without a drop.If you use vegetable based, phosphate-free shampoos, the dirty water won't offend the environment. Lukewarm or room temp water also saves energy.

5.Customized comfort. Saving energy during the coolest and hottest months of the year is a bit more difficult, particularly with an old, drafty house. Throw on an extra sweater and do your part to keep your pet from wasting energy too. Programming your thermostat a few degrees cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer makes a huge difference on the monthly bills Though your dog can't hang his coat at the door when the temps rise, you can make his immediate area more comfortable without wasting energy. Invest in a thermostatically controlled, heated bed for winter and a chilled insert for summer and your pet can do his part to be greener.

6.Renewable toys. Helping your dog to conserve can be as simple as choosing the right tools for self amusement. When given a choice, many dogs gravitate toward greener choices, particularly where toys are concerned.
Green toys accomplish the same active goals as some traditional toys, but impact the environment less. Look for recycled tire chew toys, hemp rope toys, organic cotton squeaker toys, and the like. For owners with active dogs who make short work of toys, purchasing renewable products makes a tremendous positive impact on the environment.
Let's face it, dogs consume plenty of products, many of which have the potential to further damage the environment. Because they can't make choices on their own about how to better respect and preserve the environment they use every day, it is up to us to make a conscious effort to help reduce their impact in whatever small ways we can.

Going Green is Going Brown: Using Dog Feces as an Alternative Energy Source

Submitted by: Bailey, the Rovering Reporter
By: Renae Hamrick, RVT

Going Brown

While "going green" is becoming increasingly popular, San Francisco is taking saving our environment a step farther by going.....brown. This city is creatively using their love of pets to help their favorite planet. San Francisco is working toward using dog feces to produce an alternative power source!

The U.S. produces 10 million tons of pet waste annually, with about 6,500 tons of pet waste coming from the very pet-friendly city of San Francisco! Much of the feces is currently scooped into non-biodegradable plastic bags and dumped into the landfill to sit for years and years. Feces which is not scooped can enter and contaminate water supplies. Now instead of harming the earth, doggie doo can actually help Mother Nature with this new technology.

A waste pickup company, Norcal Waste, will soon be picking up park dog waste in biodegradable bags. This waste will then be processed in a methane digester, where feces-eating bacteria produce methane. From there, the methane can be used by anything which runs on natural gas or it can be used to generate electricity. This technology has been used and proven on European farms for about 20 years.

Dog poop is the ideal waste in this energy-producing process because of the protein-rich food which we feed our pets. The droppings should produce as much energy as food scraps, another useful alternative energy source. Together, 80 tons of dog feces and food scraps could produce enough energy to power thousands of homes!

San Francisco has already proven to be a planet-saving giant. They currently recycle 60% of their waste, and they collect 300 tons of food scraps each day, which is made into fertilizer. Including their canine counterparts in their green lifestyles will be a walk in the park.
Article from Petplace.com
http://www.petplace.com/dogs/going-green-is-going-brown-using-dog-feces-as-an-alternative-energy-source/page1.aspx

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Lookie Lou says, "Working together we can change the world!"