Understanding The Problem: Dog Urine and Lawn Damage

We all love our furry friends, but there is one thing they leave behind in our yard that we could do without – urine spots. Your pet’s urine contains high amounts of nitrogen, salt, and acid. Just like too much fertilizer, your dog urinating on the lawn can burn the grass, causing unsightly yellow and brown spots. You love your best friend, but you didn’t sign up for a dog pee lawn!

No one should ever have to choose between their furry friends and a beautiful lawn. Trust the experts at Lawn Pride®️ to help you mitigate the effects of your dog urinating on the grass. Learn how to prevent and repair the damage done by dog urine killing your lawn.

Solutions to Stop Dog Urine from Killing Your Lawn

If ignored, a dog urinating on your lawn can do serious damage. Luckily, pet-friendly lawn care isn’t that hard. It takes just a few new strategies:

Water Brigade: Fill a bucket of water and have it (or a hose) ready to go when nature calls. Immediately after your dog does their business, neutralize the nitrogen by dumping water over the area. This dilutes the dog's urine and helps keep the grass from burning. Just keep in mind: The larger the dog, the bigger the urine puddle, which means the bigger the bucket you might want to keep nearby.

Keep a Urinating Dog on the Move: Does your dog have a favorite spot to pee on the grass? Train them to urinate in different areas to minimize the damage and keep specific spots from repeated exposure to excess nitrogen, salts, and acid. Better yet, establish a dedicated potty spot filled with pea gravel.

Dilute the Nitrogen: Make sure your dog has regular access to fresh water throughout the day. This will ensure your pup remains well hydrated, which dilutes the nitrogen in the urine, making it less damaging. Plus, it’ll keep your best friend healthy and happy — which is a win-win.

Walk the Walk: A great way to prevent your dog from urinating on the lawn is to take them for a brisk walk, morning and night, so they can see, hear, and smell new things — and do their business elsewhere. Just remember that your neighbors won’t appreciate your dog’s urine killing their grass, either!

Bonus! Fun Fact About Dogs Urinating: Some think a female dog’s urine is more potent than a male’s, but it’s simply the fact that female dogs are more likely to “squat” (allowing for the urine to concentrate in one single area) while male dogs tend to lift their legs in various places around the yard.

Lawn Care Tips to Repair and Revitalize Damaged Grass 

Learning how to prevent dog urine from killing the lawn is great, but you’ll need to fix the existing damage. If your grass holds lasting reminders of your dog urinating, here’s how to revitalize the damaged lawn:

Let the Air Flow: When addressing the damage caused by dogs urinating on the lawn, some recommend scraping away the top layer of soil underneath the dead grass — but this can be risky to do without professional help. Our lawn care experts recommend an aeration treatment as a safe, worthwhile solution. Aerating will grass damaged by dog urine by stimulating root growth. It also helps air, water, and nutrients penetrate the soil underneath.

Seeding Fresh Growth: Not only does dog pee kill grass, but it also keeps new grass from growing to replace the damage. Once you aerate, it’s highly recommended to reseed your lawn to help new grass grow back quicker and fuller, ensuring a lush, healthy lawn going forward.

Choose Urine Hardy Grass Seeds: When reseeding your lawn to repair the damage from urinating dogs, choose Tall Fescue. This durable type of grass is rated best for dogs for its ability to stand up to play and dog urine. It thrives in many climates and forms deep roots, so it is relatively drought resistant.

Let Your Grass Stand Tall: Mow your grass tall — at least four inches tall. Remember to always follow the One-Third Rule of grass cutting — never cut more than the top ⅓ of the grass blade. The longer grass blades hide the damage done by dog urine.

Why Choose Lawn Pride for Your Lawn Care Needs 

Trust your pride and joy to the pros at Lawn Pride. Our comprehensive lawn care services take the guesswork and stress out of producing the lush green grass you long for. In addition to repairing the damage done by your dogs’ urinating, we provide:

For more than 40 years, Lawn Pride has provided American homeowners with the lush green lawns they love. Our lawn pros are experts in your yard’s soil, climate conditions, pests, weeds, and grasses. The knowledge enables us to cultivate and maintain your property beautifully. The Neighborly Done Right Promise™ backs all our work, so you can count on being pleased.

We’re always happy to help you learn to care for your property yourself. Our turf tips, lawn care videos, and blog contain a wealth of information that will help you to have the best lawn in the neighborhood.

Request a free quote today or contact us. Let’s get Lawn Pride on the job. You’ll love the results!

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