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Three books to help you -- and your dog -- live eco-responsibly

BY PAM ROBINSON | Special to Newsday

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"Eco Dog" by Corbett Marshall and Jim Deskevich, published by Chronicle Books, $16.95

If you're going green around the house, don't forget the dog. The authors offer advice on toys, grooming, food and housing and other ways of improving a dog's health and environment. There are plenty of ideas here, from substituting lemon juice for toxic flea products at bath time to learning how to prepare healthy dog diets to making a comfortable bed out of recycled denim.

Other ideas:

Mix up an herbal flea powder, using eucalyptus, rosemary, lavender, fennel, yellow dock and pennyroyal or any combination of those that you can find. Sprinkle the mix on the dog, then put him outside so that the fleas don't remain in the house.
Bake dog treats from wheat germ and small jars of baby food.
Make beef jerky; there's a recipe included in the book.
Keep the floors and areas around the dog's crate healthy by using natural products, such as baking soda or vinegar and keep unhealthy cleaning products away from them. Dogs are lower to the ground; chemicals or cleaners used on the floor can hit reach them easily.

"The Environment Equation: 100 Factors That Can Add to or Subtract from Your Total Carbon Footprint," by Alex Shimo-Barry, published by Adams Media, $9.95

This little book aims to show clearly how people can reduce their impact on the environment by changing their behavior. Divided into five main categories: home, outdoors, on the road, work and greener living, the book lists the amount of carbon dioxide produced, or how much it can be reduced, in such activities as driving, outdoor lighting, running a clothes dryer, using a computer screensaver and insulating walls.

Some of the numbers raise questions. For example, biking is credited with reducing the carbon dioxide output by 11,650 pounds per year. But while the article on biking talks about a Paris program to encourage people to use bicycles instead of cars, no where do we learn how that savings is achieved. Through not driving? But how far or for how long? The numbers are interesting yet seem open to challenge.

But anyone looking for some general ideas about ways to go green will find some handy, quick ideas about which ones will be most effective.

"Easy Green Living," by Renee Loux, published by Rodale, $25.00

Loux, the host of Fine Living TV's program, "It's Easy Being Green," has put together hundreds of bits of advice on living an environmentally smarter life, focusing on food, cleaning and cosmetics products, furniture, toys, lighting, plumbing and other topics.

This is a well-organized book that moves easily from topic to topic, occasionally stopping to provide more detailed information on the hazards of household chemicals or explaining lightbulbs, recycling or food labels. And she recommends certain alternative products meant to reduce the use of chemicals. This is a brightly written, non-judgmental collection of good advice, presented in a way that allows a reader to pick and choose what works best in any particular household.