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Peeing On The Lawn


Lush
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Hi ladies and Gents

We are on a property of 800sqm. Now we have a small area of roll on grass and then the rest of it is lovely play areas for the poochies - lovely natural bush and weeds and soil etc.

My ridgeback is 3 and my Retriever male is 2. Now the Ridgeback is peeing on the nice cushy lawn (dont blame her but wish she wouldnt :( ) but then the retriever is then cocking his leg to pee right on top of where she is...

So in short - we have brown balding patches all over that nice small lawn that we would like to keep as "nice green lush lawn" :party:

So does anyone have any ideas for me. Is there anything I can spray on the patches to "bring them back to life"....i would imagine it would be hard to "retrain" our girl from peeing only where we want her too....esp when we both work....

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The only thing you can do is water off the urine, but you need to be able to do this pretty much immediately the dog urinates there. And that's near next to impossible.

Many people advocate adding Apple Cidar Vinegar to the dog's water. Or the use of *dog rocks* in your dog's water. Personally, I like dogs' water to be clean, fresh and without additives. I know that ACV has some excellent qualities that can enhance the health of animals (including us) but I am unsure as to what it would do over the long term when it is the continuous source of hydration. I mean, by adding these things (dog rocks as well) we are altering the dog's PH level in its gut. What long term affect (if any?) could that have? I don't know and may be concerned for no good reason. But in my view we are altering the dog's system to suit and I'm a bit of a "if it ain't broke you don't fix it" person, priority being the dog in this instance of course, not the lawn.

These are just my thoughts and feelings on the topic, so please don't take my word for it as I have absolutely no source of evidence to support my concerns.

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I am generally a KISS person, suits my personality.....keep it simple stupid.

A nice fence around the small grass area. Or a temp fence - extinction training, or whatever the behaviour experts call it? Dogs generally do have their favourite "emptying" places.....if we control them as they toilet, we can create HOT areas.

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Oh Lush .... "Pooch Cooch" lawn is supposed to be a bit more resistant to urine burn. Not completely, but supposedly stands up to the 'wear' better than other types of grass. Perhaps sow in some seeds of that in amongst your current lawn?

I'm not sure if this would help or be good. You might do better to speak with Member "Horus" as he is the garden guru of DOL here :rolleyes:. Usually found in off topic but you don't have enough posts up to be entitled to enter "Off Topic" forum. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you sent him a PM instead?

Edited by Erny
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We've got 2 x golden retreivers and our lawn is patchy all over! They have ACV in their water and also

eat a raw diet but for us, doesn't make a huge difference. The funny thing is, when they first pee on the lawn

it burns and goes yellow. However, a couple of weeks later we get this amazing green lush grass grow back in

it's place!!

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We've got 2 x golden retreivers and our lawn is patchy all over! They have ACV in their water and also

eat a raw diet but for us, doesn't make a huge difference. The funny thing is, when they first pee on the lawn

it burns and goes yellow. However, a couple of weeks later we get this amazing green lush grass grow back in

it's place!!

maybe the acid in the avc is burning the lawn , and the natural dog wee is then making the grass grow better :wave:

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Thanks for the advice ladies and gents......seems it might be the retrievers that are the "burning pee" culprits :rofl:

I will monitor it some more and hope that the grass regrows - if Not I guess I could try the rocks in the water trick and see what happens

Unfortunately fencing off the area is not an option as they need to cross this part of the yard to get from the house to their kennels. Maybe its just one of those things that we as dog owners need to just live with.....

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In layman's terms (because I'm not an expert in it and don't know how to explain any differently) it's my understanding that dog's urine contains many nutrients for the lawn - but too much of it, hence the lawn 'burns'. I guess it is just like you being able to burn the roots of pot plants by over fertilising them. Over time (without being urinated on), the nutrients dilute and that's why lush grass regrows. Kal (my avatar girl) had a special 'toilet' spot and the grass died there - the soil actually appeared quite 'off' as well. When I lost Kal and after a while, the grass in her toilet area grew back lush and rich.

Edited by Erny
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there are these rocks you put the dogs water bowl that stop the grass from burning they supposedly aclkinise the urine or something or other ??

BTW they dont harm the dog!!

Quite right. The dog rocks do neutralise urine, (lower the acidity level to a more alkiline level). However, popping a porous rock or a brick (without any toxins on it) into a bucket of water also lower the PH and therefore actually is exactly the same thing. I have experimented on this. Concrete is also very porous and can be used, in the form of rocks of concrete. Alternatively Bi-Carb also does the same thing and is also safe. Only tiny amounts need to be used.

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my mum says when she switched her cavaliers from Eukaneuba to Eaglepack that cured the problem at her place

I must admit i have found this too....no more burnt patches of grass ever since switching diet of all 4 dogs to Eagle Pack a couple of years ago.

Before that...well you can just imagine!

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Dog pee spots aren't caused by the pH of urine. The pH of carnivore urine naturally varies from neutral (7.0) to mildly acidic (5.5), so in a healthy dog shouldn't reach a pH low enough to damage grass. Normal unpolluted rain has a pH of about 5.6, and it doesn't kill your lawn!

It's the high nitrogen concentration in dog pee that is the culprit behind lawn spots.

Just like spilling nitrogen fertiliser on the lawn, too much concentrated dog pee in one spot can cause grass to burn off. And just like around a nitrogen fertiliser spill, you'll often see increased grass growth around a dog pee spot, where the grass has got just enough nitrogen to boost its growth, not enough to kill it.

IMO the best way to avoid dog spots is to dilute the urine. Either water the urine in after the dog has peed, or increase the dog's moisture intake - feed the dog wet food and/or induce the dog to drink more water - so he produces more dilute urine. I suspect that the success that a lot of people have had by adding special rocks, vinegar or other solutions to the water has a lot to do with making the water more palatible to some dogs, hence the dog drinks more?

I guess feeding a diet with less protein might help to reduce the urine nitrogen concentration too? That's just conjecture, I haven't seen any studies on that. But if the dog's peeing much nitrogen out, that generally means he doesn't need it.

There was actually an American veterinarian who did studies on this in the late 1980s, watering grass with different concentrations and pH of pee to see what effect it had. :laugh:

Edited by Amhailte
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