Thursday, March 5, 2015

Battling Dog Urine Stains On Your Green Grass (Part 3)

Battling Dog Urine Stains On Your Green Grass (Part 3)

Even though there may be different grass that can be used in your area to better withstand dog urine burns, it may not be necessary to go through the trouble of digging up and replanting the entire yard. Instead, try just watering it down.

For my two Rottweilers, the grass is fescue, and it seemed to be relatively hardy until the addition of the second dog, which prefers to urinate immediately following the first dog and in the same location – dropping a double load on the grass.

Rather than trying a different turf – because the grass burning is located in one distinct location and the rest of the yard is lush – another alternative to treating the problem is by getting the dogs to drink more water.

Small amounts of very concentrated urine kill grass more than large amounts of dilute urine, so it's important to focus on changing urine concentration rather than just trying to reduce nitrogen content alone. If the urine is diluted enough, it's less likely to kill the grass, and in very weak concentrations, it may actually serve to fertilize the lawn.
So How Do You Get Your Dog To Drink More Water?

Unfortunately, that's the difficult part. Obviously you should have bowls of fresh water available to your dog at all times,  however, dogs typically only drink what they need, and when they need it.

To encourage dogs to drink more water, a good trick is to flavor the dog's water with low-sodium chicken or beef broth. Additionally, water can be introduced into a dog's diet through his food. You can feed your dog more canned food, which has a high water content, or moistening dry dog food with water or low-sodium broth until it is almost soupy in texture.

Watch The Salt

It is important to not add salt or salt substitutes to a dog's food (to encourage drinking) until after consulting with a veterinarian to make sure that your pet doesn't have any heart or kidney problems that could be worsened by a high-salt diet.

And don't worry that the increase in water intake will be dangerous to your dog. A little more water in your dog's diet is a good thing. Of course, the whole purpose of introducing more water into the diet is to create more dilute urine, which in turn will be healthier for your yard.


Be cognizant, however, that if your dog drinks more water he will need to urinate more, too. This may mean more frequent walks or breaks during the day for a healthy dog. If your dog has an incontinence problem, purposely increasing his water intake could exacerbate leaking.

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