How to Stop Dog Urine from Killing Your Lawn

How to Stop Dog Urine from Killing Your Lawn

If you have a dog but still want to have a beautiful lawn, you may be facing a few problems. Female dogs seem to burn lawns more frequently than males. This is because females squat to urinate while males lift their leg and urinate on trees, shrubs and fences.

When your pet urinates on your lawn, it can cause the grass to burn out and yellowish dead spots will appear. This causes unsightly patches in your lawn because of the high levels of nitrogen in the urine. Though grass needs nitrogen to grow, your dog's urine is limited to one small spot. This can cause a concentrated amount of nitrogen to be applied in a small area, which causes burning. The larger your dog, the larger the burnt spot that will subsequently appear.

There are several ways to solve the problem of these unsightly dead spots:

Take your dog to a park or wooded area where it can urinate.

Saturate the place where your dog urinates with a large amount of water immediately after it does its duty. This will cause the nitrogen in the urine to be evenly distributed and diluted.

Over-seed any burnt spots that appear in your lawn. You can also replace burnt spots by applying topsoil and reseeding or digging out the spot and replacing it with a piece of sod.

Reseed or sod the area with a urine resistant grass, such as fescues or perennial ryegrass. Though these grasses aren't completely urine resistant, they aren't as susceptible to dog urine as other types of grass.

Set aside one particular corner of your yard as your dog's bathroom and train it to go there when it feels the call of nature. Cover the area with gravel or mulch so it can be easily replaced. This prevents dead spots in your lawn and helps to prevent odor from feces and urine.

Buy a food additive or supplement that you can place in your dog's food to neutralize the nitrogen in your dog's urine. These can be purchased at pet food stores and veterinarians. Be sure to purchase a product that doesn't alter the ph balance of your dog's urine, as this can have a serious effect on your dog's health.

Be sure to keep your dog well hydrated in order to lower nitrogen levels in its urines naturally. Your dog should always have access to water at all times.

These tips will enable you to enjoy the companionship of a dog and keep your lawn beautiful, green and free of unsightly yellowish spots that are caused by high nitrogen levels in its urine.