Battling Dog Urine Stains On Your Green Grass (Part 1)

Battling Dog Urine Stains On Your Green Grass (Part 1)

It never fails, my two dogs – both lovable and protective Rottweilers - seem to enjoy urinating in the same spot of the backyard, day in, day out. Whether it's morning, noon or night, it's down the steps and to the right, donating copious amounts of healthy, adult dog urine in an approximate 4-square-foot area.

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The result is a large patch of brown, ugly, burned-out lawn that surrounds the bottom step of the deck. For my nicely landscaped backyard, the large urine burns are rather unsightly.

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I realized that unless some serious changes are made (and getting rid of the dogs was NOT an option), then these spots were not going to go away on their own, so I had to start my research and will not share with you what I learned to keep my grass green and my dogs happy.

Why Dog Urine Turns Grass Brown

It's no secret that urine burns grass, as well as many types of shrubs, annual flowers and perennial plants. What causes the burn is nitrogen. When a dog eats a meal, the protein in the food is metabolized. A byproduct of metabolized protein is nitrogen.

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The kidneys are responsible for the collection and secretion of many of the body's unwanted excesses, including byproducts of metabolized foods, such as nitrogen. So, if all is going well with the dog's bodily functions then excess nitrogen will be flushed out of the dog's body through his urine.

Here is where things get a bit tricky: Those who work with lawns and plants know that nitrogen is used as fertilizer. So what's so special about the nitrogen in dog urine that causes it to kill everything green it touches? The secret is in the solution, so to speak.

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With fertilizers containing nitrogen, a small amount goes a long way. If you're using a rotary spreader (which is used to fertilize the lawn), spilling a pile of fertilizer in one spot would be similar to a pool of urine. The concentration would be too high and would kill the grass below.

Once grass is dead from nitrogen burn there's not much you can do to revive it. If you want healthy green grass, you're going to have to replant this area. You'll need to rake up the dead grass and plant new seed.

Replanting dead areas, however, is somewhat of a “band-aid” approach. If you don't get to the root of the problem (dog urine), you're likely to wind up with more dead patches of grass all over the lawn.