lawn spots...

[huckleberry]

Age old question - what is your remedy for the burn spots in your yard from your dog's urine? Anybody have anything that really works?

[LABS4ME]

Rake out the dead grass, dig out 3"-4" of the soil, mix some grass seed with some good weed free soil, place into "divot", keep moist the first 3-4 weeks. Lime or gypsum will not make the lawn grow back. That's an old wives tale. It helps minimize burning BEFORE it happens. It may help sweeten the soil after it happens.

Good Luck!

Ken

[SportFishin']

huckleberry,

In prevention to the spots happening give the dog Tomato Juice (1cup per feeding) or Raw Tomatoes. It works great!! It will cut down on the acidity of the urine. It may take a week or two before it gets into thier system, but you will notice it later in the lawn.

When I really noticed Tomatoes worked was last year we had a cherry tomato plant overflowing out of the graden in the back & my two female dogs were just chowing them right off the plant when they felt like a snack & the spots soon were gone. With the grass lookin great. This year we plan to give the dogs thier own tomato plant planted in a spot where they can get to it. So they aren't eating all our vegetables.

Good Luck,

Chris

[2 DA GILLS]

Found an interesting paper in dog lawn spots.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/turf/dog_lawn_problems.html

[leechlake]

After battling that for years I did two things, maybe they could work for you. First I limited the dogs to the back yard only, that at least made the front of the house look nice. The second thing I did was we made a large shredded mulch area and confined the dogs to that area, that way they do their business not on the lawn but on the wood mulch. I know this is potentially not possible for you but I tried all the tricks in the past and this is the only solid fix.

[rappin jack]

Will dead spots come back after time?

Also can cheaper dog food cause burning?

[island guy]

I've tried everything. Short of sending her to the neighbors lawn to pee nothing works. I've got a brother who has a Phd in botany. He says in the summer you could follow the dog around with a H2O can and water each spot as it happens. I guess it helps dilute the area. Other wise he said re-seeding is about the only option. I've had dogs for years and my females are the worst. At least the males like to lift a leg against a post or tree.

[2 DA GILLS]

A few articles that I read said that females do cause more problems than males. Not because of more toxicity in their urine, but the because they squat and they tend to dump everything in one location. Males tend to ration their urine so they can mark more territory. Male pups will be similiar to females (squat) and sometimes even worse. If you are feeding your pup high protein food, it can be worse. The cause of the burns is the concentrated nitrogen in the urine. I would guess much like a fertilzer burn if you dump a small pile in your lawn.

I have heard the same thing - the way to control is to saturate the areas with water to dilute the concentration of nitrogen.

I wonder if it would be true that the greener the lawn (better fertilzed) the more it is burned. I have noticed more burns with the dryer weather we have had in our area the past week of so. I got some treats at the local pet store that are suppose help the issue. Waiting to see if they work.

[rappin jack]

What type of treats did you get? Im glad to hear that my lawn isnt the only brown one....

[2 DA GILLS]

Nutri-Vet Nutritionals Green Grass Supplement

Hard to tell if they are working or not. There are too many dead spots to tell if there are any new ones at this point. I may have to start marking his new spots to see if that area dies as well.