Dog Pee Killing Grass - Need Solution

[Pickle]

I have a female lab that is absolutely destroying my grass. Any rehab at this point will be lengthy. I tried some pee pills that change the Ph of the urine to no avail. Does anyone have an idea? My wife and I are considering the fake grass but it is very expensive.

[Xink]

id loose the dog, but i guess thats not an option?

[Gixxer_USMC]

There are tablets you can buuy at your Pet Store that alieviate that ... "GRAS-SAVER" is the one i use ...

[Pickle]

I don't remember the name of the tablets I used last time but they didn't work. I wonder if some are better than others. At this point though, IK wouldn't be able to tell the difference in the grass if they were working. I wish I could get rid of the dog.

[Steel_Penguin]

I don't mean to interrupt but this is perhaps the funniest thread i've read in a week .

BTW, i don't own a dog.

[Phantom]

+rep for a good laugh

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Pickle

I have a female lab that is absolutely destroying my grass. Any rehab at this point will be lengthy. I tried some pee pills that change the Ph of the urine to no avail. Does anyone have an idea? My wife and I are considering the fake grass but it is very expensive.

Have you tried watering your grass more often? I have two female shepherd mutts and their pee lightens the green of a well watered lawn just a little bit, but this year with the drought (and me not watering the lawn), the pee spots really turned yellow.

I remember hearing about people watering their lawn with green dye to improve appearance, but I'm not sure how effective it is, or how much it costs...

[Pickle]

Yeah, grass gets plenty of water. Front yard is magnificient

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Pickle

Yeah, grass gets plenty of water. Front yard is magnificient

That may be, but have you tried watering it even more? How often and for how long do you water right now?

The object of watering more wouldn't be to have the grass take in more water as much as it would be to wash away the urine (or at least help balance the acidity).

[Pickle]

The grass is on the verge of getting swamped as it is. More water won't help.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Pickle

The grass is on the verge of getting swamped as it is. More water won't help.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/p..._problems.html

Dr. Allard’s study looked at watering fescue at different intervals following urination. Water volumes three times that of the urine were used to assess their dilution effects. A fertilizer effect rather than burn was noted when the site was watered at any time up to 8 hours after the urination. When the delay in watering was extended to 12 or more hours, progressively worse burns were noted. It appears that routine watering of the grass in early mornings would not be sufficient to prevent all urine burns.

If you have sprinklers on a timer, you could just set them to "wash" the lawn for a minute or two every 6 hours, in addition to your actual watering schedule...


Also, have you thought about putting sand or gravel in a corner of your yard and training her to only do her business there? It's time consuming to train her, and a rock or sand garden might not be your thing, but it sure would make things easier...

[CingularDuality]

And lots of "old wives'" type advice here:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/...515119144.html

I came upon this thread in a search and I'm astounded at some of the advice being blindly thrown around here!
I do soil agronomy/disease research for a living and my fiancee is in the animal care field.

Let me clear up some misconceptions:

1. Nothing you feed your dog will solve the problem of it's urine burning your grass.
2. It's not acid that causes the burning, it's UREA (same thing that burns your lawn if you apply too much high-nitrogen fertilizer)
3. There is no difference in male and female urine; at least in ways that would affect the burning of your lawn. Females pee in one spot while makes spray it all over which is why females tend to burn the grass easier.

There are three easy ways to prevent this:

1. Train your dog not to pee on your lawn (heh! Good luck)
2. Dilution. The ones who suggested dumping copious amounts of water on the pee area are correct. Dilution is the solution.
3. A healthy lawn. A lawn with a high concentration of microbes will not only break the urea in the urine down to ammonium - nitirite - and then nitrate(which is bliss for your grass), it will allow for your lawn to bounce back easily from any stress at all.

Fertilize your lawn with compost. Use store bought fertilizers high in potash and phosphate and water often to achieve this (there's enough nitrogen in the compost).

Tuff turf is a good strong grass consisting of (I believe) Kentucky Bluegrass, creeping red fescue and one other type of hardy grass.

So to recap: Spending more time on keeping your grass healthy or dilution of the pee area are the ONLY ways to keep the urea from your male or female dog's urine from burning your grass.

Hope this helps clear up any confusion.

[Rock]

My misses used tomoto juice!

Put 2 teaspoons in all daily meals and it should work, We use it and it does for us

[OSD]

Originally Posted by Pickle

I have a female lab that is absolutely destroying my grass. Any rehab at this point will be lengthy. I tried some pee pills that change the Ph of the urine to no avail. Does anyone have an idea? My wife and I are considering the fake grass but it is very expensive.

Teach your dog to use the toilet and then your lawn will be green and no land mines to step in............

[Obi]

Dilution is the solution.