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Dealing with dog's urine spots

16 years ago

We recently had an underground fence installed on our property, and our 1-yr old dog is in heaven w/her new freedom. She has picked a large section of the front lawn as the primary 'pee spot' and she's creating a lot of deep green spots that grow like crazy as a result. I've read a bit about following her around w/sugar water, etc.. to try and prevent discoloration, but honestly, I'm not planning to do that anytime soon.

2 Q's:

Is there anything I can/should do in the short term to even out the color where it's spotty?

I did have dead spots after the spring thaw from last fall's pee spots, which are just about filled in now, but they looked pretty ugly in the spring. Is there any way to avoid these dead spots come next spring?

thx

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Comments (2)

quirkyquercus
16 years ago
1.) Spray paint
2.) No.
billhill
16 years ago
2nd question first: If you had them this spring, then you will probably have them next spring. The best way to minimize the effect would be to strengthen your turf as much as possible. Lots of organic material, spread some compost, mulch your clippings and fall leaves. Late fall fertilization to enable healthy root growth over winter. Next spring, very early in the season, remove the dead grass from the pee spots, scrape the soil, throw down some seed and cover with thin layer of compost. If you use crabgrass preventer, then cover those spots when applying, so that the seeds have a chance to grow. Alternatively, plant the dead spots with plugs taken from an inconspicuous part of your lawn.

1st question: Is there anything I can/should do in the short term to even out the color where it's spotty? The green spots are over fertilized. You may try fertilizing the rest of that part of your lawn to even the color. Introduce more organic matter into that part of your lawn. Over-dress with compost, fertilize with organics, get your microbes to digest the waste products from your family pets.

If possible, train you dog to go in a less conspicuous part of your lawn as opposed to the front.
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Yes, it has been so long since we talked about dog spots here that they must have fallen off the list. A heaping handful of table sugar usually brings back the grass. The problem is not the dog and not the grass. The problem is the soil health. Sugar brings up the population of bacteria needed to process the urine. If you can apply organic fertilizer once per year, any time you want, the soil health will improve and the rest of your lawn care work should come together better. More frequent apps will help more. One app of alfalfa pellets (rabbit sized) at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet will help a lot. After you put them down you should moisten them but not necessarily wash them away. The next day they will swell up and look like worms. Then you can use a push broom to settle them down into the turf. Dragging a hose across the lawn does the same thing as the broom.
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woodyoak, one might suspect that except that the adjacent area was similarly watered, but only the doggie pee spot grew faster and darker green. I marked the about 10 spots with landscaping flags when I did that sugar testing. I will grant you that this was not a large scale, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, peer reviewed, study of the phenomenon. So, yes I have no "scientific" evidence. Mine is simply a crafty story which has spread leaving some people to believe I'm telling the truth. However it is based on a brief flurry of repeated anecdotal successes. I am not singling out Big Sugar to sensationalize this. I'm not calling the Earth flat. I'm trying to help solve a problem common to turf. Are you a scientist with clear scientific evidence, and clear statistical results, proving I am wrong? You can sit there and postulate things until you're blue in the face, but until you try it and make your own observation, please keep an open mind. But I do agree that if you observe the dog peeing in a spot and you can immediately flush it with water, that will work. The problem comes about when the dog is left unattended, like 99.9% of dogs in back yards.
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