Grass and Dog Urine

grass dog urineI have found products that color or paint the grass. Products to spray on the grass that help it recover from the nitrogen effects of the dog urine. I have found products to feed your dog that supposedly change the PH of the dogs urine to less acidic.  There are all types of products to feed your dog to fix this problem of dead grass spots in your lawn. Wafers, Biscuits, pills, liquids that you add to the dogs drinking water and more. I have also found grass seed designed for reseeding those area’s in your lawn. All of these may have their place and do the job. I do not know I have not tried them all.  Different solutions work for different people and their own situations. I will tell you what I have been looking for. I am looking for a product that you sprinkle on the lawn (similar to weed and feed) in the areas that the dog urine is killing. This product will then bind the nitrogen and change it so it becomes fertilizer to the lawn and not so concentrated that it burns it. I thought I had found just that product but I could not get the company to respond to my inquiries. I am looking at another lead on this kind of product and I will let you know when I find it.

I don’t believe the PH has much to do with urine killing the grass. I think it is the nitrogen content in the soil from the urine that kills the grass. Especially if you have treated it with a lawn fertilizer that has nitrogen in it already. I have read several reports about it. I have not done my own study on this but the nitrogen makes more sense to me.

There are natural ways to deal with the problem that don’t involve buying anything extra.  Watching the dog and each time it urinates on the lawn you can dilute it by adding water to the spot. Three times the amount of water to the amount of urine within eight hours of the urine being deposited is recommended to get resutls. Personally I can’t or won’t do this one. I don’t mind diluting it when I see the dog urinate in the yard but I am not going to watch every time for it. You can change the dogs diet to one that produces less protein waste. This will reduce the nitrogen in the urine. Either a lower protein diet or a food that the dog digests  the protein better. Check with your vetrinarian. You can walk the dog regularly so it urinates in a place of your choosing.  If it is a neighbors dog causing the problem advise them of the leash laws. Then there is the option of potty training the dog to use a specific area of your yard. An area you have designated for your dog to go. Get your dog to drink more. You can add a little water to your dogs food. This will dilute the nitrogen in the urine. Your dog may need to urinate more often but it will be less damaging. These are all possibilities where you do not have to buy anything more than you are already buying.

Female Dog Urine

female dog urine

Female dog urine is generally no different than male dog urine. There are some exceptions to this but basically they are the same. If you want to know more about the makeup of the urine itself read dogs urine. It is commonly thought that female dog urine is more acidic than male. It is also thought that this extra acidity is what causes the damage to grass. This is not the case. What causes the damage to grass is the excess nitrogen in the urine male or female.

The method in which a female dog urinates is different. The female will squat and empty her whole bladder in one spot where the male will more often urinate in smaller amounts spreading it around marking his territory. This will make the concentration of urine and nitrogen much stronger in the area that the female urinates. This is why a female dog often does more damage to grass than a male dog. The same situation will apply in a room. Whether it is carpet, hardwood, concrete, or tile and grout. You find larger more concentrated and deeper areas affected by female dog urine.  That is if the dogs are similar in size to each other. The male dog urine will many times be lighter and spread around the edges of the room. He will also do more damage up on furniture and walls. In these cases it is not the excess nitrogen that is causing the problems.

What causes problems in these cases is number one, odor from the urine. What causes the odor from the urine is the bacteria in the urine which creates off gassing and the ammonia that is being formed from the urine. Number two is the stain from the urine. There are several types of products that are effective at eliminating these problems. If you get a good product that has been designed to deal with dog urine odor and stains and use it correctly you can achieve excellent results.

Dog Urine Killing Grass

grass dog urine

There are a number of products available to fix the problem of dog urine killing grass. Two items that are reported to cause the urine to kill grass are the PH of the urine and the nitrogen content in it. Nitrogen is used in fertilizers for grass. It helps the grass green up nicely but too much nitrogen burns and kills it.

There are also several different methods of correcting this problem that don’t involve buying any products. Change the protein in your dog’s diet. Get your dog to drink more water or broth. To do this just add a little broth to your dog’s food.

You can give your dog supplements that are made specifically to correct this issue of dog urine killing grass. I will explore each of these items in more detail and recommend the best products to use to correct this problem in future posts. See grass and dog urine for more information.