We all love our furry friends, but their bodily fluids can sometimes be more damaging to the lawn than one would think.
Dog pee is very acidic and can cause the lawn to turn a few different colors. Sometimes the spots will just be a different shade of green than the rest of the lawn due to the high nitrogen levels found in dog’s urine, which is also the ingredient in fertilizers that causes the grass to green up. Oftentimes the spots will be a dark green around the outside with a burnt-out spot in the center. Other times, and this is more typical with bigger dogs, the spots can be quite large and completely yellow.
If you find pee spots to be plaguing your lawn, there are a few steps to take for repair. First, water the areas heavily. This will dilute any remaining urine and decrease the likelihood for any further damage. From there, the best bet is to rake out the dead areas, add some fresh topsoil, and reseed them completely over.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to completely prevent this problem from happening, as potty breaks are essential for our pets! There are really no effective food additives or pills to “fix” your dog’s urine, since it’s not really a problem to fix. One good practice to minimize the damage overall is to train your pet to pee in one area of the lawn rather than all over.
