Pee Killing my Grass!!!!!

[lovebugs2003]

Does anyone have any suggestions about helping my grass out.

There is an area my pup Diego likes to pee in, about 5 feet by 4 feet, and now the grass is yellow/brown. What can i put on there that would be safe for him as well as effective for the grass. It is so noticeable and we are selling our house so it doesn't look so good.

Any help or suggestions would be great.

Thanks

[~queen~]

Is your pup getting enough water? Dog pee is like human pee in that it can be diluted based on how hydrated the dog is. Keep water handy and also do some extra watering of the lawn. It may be also be a fungus that is killing the grass so try some lawn food & fertilizer.

[lovebugs2003]

We have water available to him all the time, he drinks like a fish.
When you say fungus, do you mean caused by his pee or something completely different.

[jajacobsen]

Interersting.... We don't have this problem,although I have heard of it. Our dogs do not urinate in the same spot consistently.

I ditto teh spray the area down with water thoroughly at leats once a day and try to retrain your dog to a non-glrass area, auch as where there are leaves and /or pinestraw.

[vwinkel]

When we moved into our house, there were spots all over the yard from the previous owners. We had to dig it up and replace it with sod.

I would recommend daily waterings to dlilute it. Put a sprinkler out there if you can. Otherwise, maybe tie him up when he goes out there to limit the area he goes in? Good luck.

[Chimichanga]

There are some treats, I think called "Greenies" but I'm not 100% on the name - that helps neutralize dog pee so it doesn't kill the lawn. We haven't used them for our dog, but I haven't heard anything bad about them so I assume they work.

[fuzzy]

I've never tried them, but you might want to give these (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=11874&Ntt=urine&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&pc=1&N=0&Nty=1) a whirl to see if they work.

[~queen~]

Does your dog's pee smell really strong when it first comes out? If not, and you can barely smell it, then it is with the grass itself, not from your dog peeing there.

Your grass can have lots of problems including a fungus, fairy rings, etc. Grubworms (little white worms underneath the soil that eat the roots) are very common in my area and the main cause of brown patches/dead grass. They get treated/killed by a lawn pellet treatment and lots of watering.

But, since you are selling, I would de-thatch it, then put down new top soil and grass seeds.

HTH!

BTW, me, personally, I'm against giving my dog any kind of food items that can help my grass when there are alternatives to treating the grass itself. But, again, that is just me.

[Chile]

Because the grass is already dead you'll have to replace it. But for in the future, if you water the area that the dog pees on it won't kill it. It will dilute the urine and not burn the grass to death.

Greenies are a breath neutralizer and teeth cleaning sort of treat - they do nothing regarding the pee. And I'd stay away from any product you feed your dog to "neutralize" their pee.

[lovebugs2003]

Queen and Chile,

Yeah I agree, i don't want to give him anything to stop it. I am going to try to get him to go to an area where there isn't grass.

The only thing is, if it is my grass and not him, why is it where he pees. Only there.

[Smurfy]

Just curious--is he neutered?

[jajacobsen]

I think the buildup of uric acid starts the problem, and then it takes off from there. Too much uric acid killed your grass. Inteh future, just spray the favorite pee area down a LOT.

Probably you should just reseed for now.

[lovebugs2003]

Smurfy, no he isn't, he will be soon though.

[Smurfy]

Hopefully his urine may change a bit after neutering, and be less acidic.
Urine is basically lawn fertilizer (nitrogen). So to solve the problem you need to water your lawn more often, or if you want to get real technical you could feed the dog a dog food with bare minimum protein requirements. The nitrogen in the urine is what burns the grass (like using too much fertilizer). The only options are to dilute the nitrogen (water) or decrease it in the urine (low protein diet). Sorry you have to worry about this, good luck with the house-selling! :)

[kari]

Too much protein in his food.

As I say to my husband, give up the dream of having nice grass when you have a dog that pees on it.

[LKMang]

We had the same problem with our lawn. My husband replanted more grass seeds and now we fill up a water bottle and bring it out every time he goes. It has definitely made a difference!

[shellbell516]

We have this problem too, but our dog is already on a low protein diet (large breed dog food) because she's a great dane. She also drinks tons of water.

I have been told that it was something due to her being female, but I see that must be a myth if you're dog is male and you're having these issues too.

It would be nice to not have dead spots in the yard and spraying the pee spots down after each visit to the potty is also a PITA. It would be nice to just have a simple solution.

[Guinness]

We give our two labs these (http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444177 8748&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302033165&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023689&bmUID=1161803212765&itemNo=0&Ntt=green+grass&In=Dog&previousText=green+grass&N=2023689) and it works! It is sort of expensive as you have to give them a couple a day, but it really did make a difference in our lawn. I will say that after a while we gave them less and less and it doesn't seem to be an issue.

[lovebugs2003]

Thanks for the suggestion Guiness.

Is this something you have to give them everyday for the rest of their lives, or just a short while?

[Guinness]

We gave it to them for a while (2 years) but don't do it very much anymore, maybe every once in a while. We don't have spots on the grass. If we start noticing any we do it for a few days . . . not sure if it is forever or not. . .