We love our dogs, and want them to be happy, healthy and free. We’ve trained them to pee outside and have protected our interior spaces such as our carpets, and floors. How are we able to protect our outside space – our lawn? Dog urine is well known for leaving brown spots and killing our grass if we don’t do anything to protect it. We obviously would prefer our dogs to pee outside, but how do we help our lawn to survive urine burn?
Why does dog urine hurt our grass?
Dog urine contains a large amount of nitrogen that seeps into the soil whenever your dog uses the bathroom. The high concentration of nitrogen in one spot causes brown or dark green spots. The dark green spots are caused by dog pee that helps the soil that is low in nitrogen by fertilizing it. The brown spots are caused by the dog adding too much nitrogen to the soil, which burns the grass and kills it. The patches will turn yellow and then brown. Usually, you will see a dark green ring around the edge where the urine ran off from the center and is more diluted.
How to prevent urine spots
What are some ways that we can prevent urine spots?
- Water is your best friend when it comes to preventing dog pee spots. If you water the spot where your dog pees right afterward it will flush the nitrogen and salts from the soil. This isn’t always the best solution, because we can’t always follow our dogs around with a hose, and water conservation is important in our area.
- Train your dog where to go. If you give them a designated potty spot, they will use that area and it will protect the rest of your lawn. There are products such as the Pee Post that you can use to attract your dog with pheromones to specific areas. You can also use positive reinforcement to train them. You don’t need to sacrifice part of your lawn to brown spots, you apply dog safe mulch such as rubber, cedar, straw or coconut fibers to that area instead of grass.
- Raise your mower. If you let your grass grow a little taller it will have deeper roots and be more likely to survive urine burn. Tall grass will also cover existing urine spots.
- You can attempt to use dog rocks in your dog’s water that filter out nitrates, ammonia and other impurities in your dog’s water. When your dog drinks this water it will reduce the nitrogen in their urine. You can also find pills and treats that do similar things.
- Adjusting your dog’s diet by adding in more fresh proteins will lead to reduced nitrogen in the urine, increasing their water intake, and adding supplements can all reduce urine burn.
How to repair your lawn
What are some ways that we can repair our lawn? You can repair your lawn by reseeding, regularly fertilizing and using soil-cleansing lawn treatments. Grass will grow back with help, and you’ll have lush green lawn again. Another option? Try artificial turf. Check out some of our articles about the benefits of making the switch.