My Pet World: The best way to clean up after your dog

Q: We have four large dogs and cleaning up after they have done their business is an issue. Currently, we use place bags to clean up after them in the yard and during walks. But then we place those bags in the garbage and off to the landfill they go. We are hoping you can offer a greener solution as to what to do with all their poop. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks so much. -- Mario Campo, Chicago, IL

A: This is what I did myself when I had a houseful of eight large dogs. I created a "dog potty" in my backyard that is basically a large square gravel bed that I trained my dogs to relieve themselves on. Next to this spot I buried one of those Doggie Dooley's, which is basically a bottomless trash can that is buried in the ground with a tight fitting lid. Every day I just picked up the poop off the gravel and drop it in the Doggie Dooley, where it disappears into the depths of the ground. To me this seems like the greenest solution.

However, I must confess that when I took my dogs for walks through the neighborhood I just bagged it and tossed it in a garbage can. The bulk of poop bags sold these days in pet stores are considered to be biodegradable and do break down in time but some take longer than others. The bags made of corn are more expensive but do break down the fastest. With small dogs, most owners use Wee-Wee pads indoors then just flush the poop in the toilet, which is a fine solution.

One thing that everyone seems to be in agreement with is that dog poop should never be composted and used as fertilizer for vegetables meant for human consumption as there may be pathogens in the dog poop that we do not need in our vegetable gardens. The heat generated in your average compost pile is not enough to kill all pathogens such as E-coli.

Q: There is a cat lady on our block that feeds the stray cats in the neighborhood and it seems like it attracts raccoons to our block. My question is if I have to worry about my Yorki as we let her out into the yard at night and some of these raccoons are three times her size. I was wondering if we have to worry that one of them would hurt her one night? -- Samantha Miller, Orlando, FL

A: If you asked me this question two months ago I would have said a raccoon that is well-fed on cat food would most likely not bother with a dog -- even a little dog like you have. Coyotes are the ones who cause major drama with household pets. I always assumed raccoons were not motivated enough to hurt pets.

However, I just went through a horrible experience that changed my mind about what raccoons are capable of. For 15 years we had a pet Tasmanian Black Swan that lived freely in our backyard -- her name was Giselle and she hated me but was devoted to my wife.

She was a huge bird and when she was mad at me she could hit me with her wings so hard that I would be knocked down. She would chase and terrorize all our dogs and cats. We had a little straw filled shed that had an open door where she slept at night and there never was a problem with raccoons -- they never bothered her in all these years.

We have a neighbor that feed stray cats as well and the resident raccoons are so well fed that they do not even bother with opening the trash cans anymore. We also have no coyotes in this area.

However, the other night poor Giselle was killed by a raccoon and I have no idea why or how it happened -- it was a fierce battle judging by what I saw in the morning. I never would have thought a raccoon could overpower such a strong bird like a Black Swan. I cannot figure out why a raccoon would bother her when there were bowls of cat food left out by my neighbor only 50 feet away.

So my point is to never underestimate what a raccoon can do -- be sure your dog is vaccinated for rabies and keep flood lights lit in your backyard when the little dog is out at night. You have to be pro-active rather than reactive.

Q: We have a ferret and a Pomeranian and they are great friends. The ferret does go to the dog's dish and helps himself to the kibble when he has the opportunity. We were wondering if this is OK for him? -- Eva Smith, Evanston, IL

A: A small amount of dog kibble here and there is not going to hurt a ferret, but do not let the ferret eat so much that it's appetite gets satiated. If you do it might not eat as much of its own food that it normally would. Ferrets need a lot more protein and fat than dogs do and too much dog food can skew the ferrets metabolism out of balance.

Another issue is their teeth. Ferrets have very thin teeth that break easily, which is why kibble made for ferrets is soft and easy to break up. Crunching on hard dog kibble can cause a ferret to break off one of their eyeteeth and when this happens a nasty abscess can develop in the mouth, so this situation is one you need to monitor.

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(Marc Morrone has kept almost every kind of animal as a pet for the last half-century and he is happy to share his knowledge with others. Although he cannot answer every question, he will publish many of those that have a general interest. You can contact him at petxperts2@aol.com; please include your name, city and state.)