Oh my goodness, Texas-Weed, it's a full-time job correcting all your mistakes. Cutting zoysia once a week is NOT infrequent mowing that will lead to excessive thatch. My zoysia has never been cut more often than once a week, and it's never had a thatch problem. But don't rely on my anecdote. Let's look at what Alabama A&M and Auburn have to say about cutting frequency and height. But first before we go to Auburn and Alabama, let's remember from the previous posts in this thread that 2 University of Arkansas professors and 3 University of Florida professors allow for a maximum zoysia cutting height of 2.5 inches, which is significantly higher than your maximum of 1.5 inches, Texas-Weed. Now onto Auburn University's and the University of Alabama A&M's advice for mowing heights and mowing frequencies of various Zoysia grasses. The first thing shown on each line below is the name of the Zoysia species or of the specific cultivar/variety within the species. The second thing shown is the Minimum Mowing Height in inches for that grass. The third thing shown is the Optimum Mowing Height in inches. The fourth thing is the Maximum Mowing Height in inches. The fifth and last thing shown is the Mowing Frequency in days (it's shown in parentheses). Zoysia japonica, 2 , 2 , 3 , (every 7-10 days) Meyer Zoysia, 1 , 1.5 , 2 , (every 10-14 days) Belair Zoysia, 1 , 1.5 , 2 , (every 7-10 days) El Toro Zoysia, 1 , 1.5 , 2 , (every 7-10 days) The above are all cultivars within the Zoysia japonica species (Palisades is also within this japonica species). This species tends to have wider blades and lower shoot density than the other two main zoysia species, which are Zoysia matrella and Zoysia tenuifolia. The tenuifolia species is not common in the U.S. A little bit of it is used as ground cover in parts of Southern California. Alabama A&M and Auburn also list mowing heights and frequencies for some cultivars in the Zoysia matrella species. These thinner bladed grasses have a maximum mowing height of 1 inch, tend to have denser shoot density than the cultivars within japonica, and tend not to have the cold hardiness of the japonica's, so they're not found around here in the northern half of the Transition Zone. Yes, that document is "Under Review," (because universities like to catch mistakes, Texas-Weed), but I saw similar mowing frequency numbers for zoysia printed on the web somewhere else a couple months ago--I don't recall where right now. By the way, I read in a couple textbooks I got from Amazon that a little thatch is helpful to grass. It is *excessive* thatch that is not.

Ky31 doesn't spread by rhizomes or stolons, but it does spread by tillars. The tillars will eventually become independent of the main grass plant and then produce tillars of their own. I just think of tillars as short rhizomes. Again, KY31 will handle your dogs abuse. My female dog does urinate in the grass and it does damage it as expected, but it recovers quite well. in fact, it's proving almost impossible for me to kill. When I first planted KY31, I didn't know anything about lawn care. It was my first home and when I moved in, the back yard was basically all mud. I picked Ky31 because it was the cheapest. After having such great success, and learning more about lawn care and turf, I've become somewhat of a lawn care nut. I renovated my front lawn (that was mostly ryegrass and weeds) with Kentucky Bluegrass and Turf Type Tall Fescue. That looks amazing in comparison to my backyard KY31. Late summer and early fall, I tried torturing the KY31 backyard. Repeated scalping during the heat, not watering in the heat of summer, rough rough raking with a detaching rake and shovel, etc. this was in preparation to overseed Titan RX, an improved variety of tall fescue. after the overseeding on top of the overly abused KY31... The KY31 has survived. Hardly any of the Titan RX is present in the lawn. the seedlings were all choked out of existence. im serious, I think KY31 will survive a nuclear apocalypse.

@norm1977, wow, I hadn’t expected a response or comment anymore at this late stage, but it’s always nice when someone checks in! On the whole, the lawn is holding up great. One of my dogs passed away in 2019, 😢 so it’s only taking abuse from one instead of two now, and there are definitely places along the edges where it has died because those are regular pee spots for my boy. But I expected that, and they’re not big areas. Right now a good portion of the lawn is dormant for winter, especially where it’s more exposed when there’s the occasional frost like we got last week. It is one of the best garden investments I made!

Thanks for reposting Ryan. For those of you who don't know, Ryan posted to both the lawn forum and to the Ask the Yard Doctor forum. There is something hinky about the ATYD forum which turns off the ability to comment. So we saw it but could not reply to him. I found one of his posts on another forum which did allow comments and dropped the hint to repost only to the lawn forum. Since the dog pees in the same spot all the time, you can start to flush away the excess urine with the hose. Then the sugar should help. I would not do anything else. What you have already done should not hurt. My St Aug is going crazy this year. We had the weirdest spring ever with 1 day of summer and 1 day of winter guaranteed every week. We also got 3-4 inches of rain every month until May when it stopped. My St Aug in the back has grown in thick for about 15 feet. Normally it grows in thin for 10 feet and thickens the following year. Where do you live? Are the pee spots in the shade or full sun?