You probably know that dog’s urine will kill the grass and cause yellow spots. But, you may not know that a female dog’s pee will kill the grass sooner and cause larger spots. Female dogs pee kills grass faster due to obvious reasons. Below we will explain the reason and also the prevention methods you can use to keep your lawn in great shape.
Why Female Dogs Pee Kills Grass More Than Male Dog’s Pee
This is definitely an interesting topic and something dog owners who have two (male and female) dogs need to know. A female dog’s pee kills grass faster because she will squat while peeing. A male dog will lift his leg hence he will spray and cover a larger area. Because he covers a larger area the pee will affect more grass but with weaker effects.
You may believe that the urine of a male and female dog is different. It is not. In reality, the urine is chemically the same and there are no differences of any kind. The main reason why any pee will kill the grass and cause yellow spots is due to nitrogen and also salts that are present in the urine. Keep in mind that this happens when a dog pees in the same spot, something they like to do so over time nitrogen and salts will affect the grass.
Prevention
As you can assume, prevention is always better than fixing your lawn. There is also something rewarding when you don’t have to fix your lawn on a regular basis. Without these options we have below, yellow spots on the grass are common and your pet will not stop peeing on the grass. Anyway, you do have a few options that are worthy of your time.
-
Water The Grass
The first option is the simplest and usually very affordable. Get a sprinkler system. It will spray clean water all over the grass on a regular basis. This will dilute and remove the pee from the grass and soil. It means that your grass will never become yellow because the urine won’t have enough time to affect it.
-
Teach Your Dog To Pee In A Specific Location
You may want to train your dog to pee in a specific location. It can be somewhere where there is no grass hence you won’t have this problem. This is an important and time-consuming training so you do need a lot of time to make this happen.
-
Dog Rocks
These are affordable and they work great. These are also a natural way that will prevent the pee of your dog from burning the grass.
-
Change The Diet Of Your Dog
In some cases, the diet of your dog can help. If your pet has a diet that increases the level of nitrogen and salts in the urine, changing the diet can be the solution. Basically, you will need to opt for food that has a higher moisture level. As such, the urine will be diluted hence it won’t affect grass so much. Of course, you have to discuss this with your vet first.
Fixing Your Lawn
Now when you know the answer you will have to know what to do. Every now and then you may end up with a lawn that has spots on it. If that happens, you will have to fix the problem. Here we will explain how you can do this in a simple and easy way.
-
Green Spots
You all believe that dog’s urine can only kill the grass. This is not true. The urine contains the nitrogen that grass needs. In some cases, it is possible that grass can become greener. It simply means that the part or the spot of the grass got more nitrogen than the rest of the lawn so the grass is greener.
Your whole lawn can look like this. The solution is to test the soil and see if the nitrogen level is too low. If it is, or the pH is low/high or there are issues with some other nutrients you need to correct that. Use special fertilizer that corrects those issues and you will have perfectly green grass. Usually, this means that you will have to use suitable fertilizer every 60-90 days.
Try to remember that if you correct this and your dog pees on the grass, the nitrogen level will get so high that it can damage or kill the grass.
-
Brown Spots
This happens when the grass is seriously damaged due to dog’s urine. Start with simple things like watering the lawn a lot. The method is effective due to the fact it can wash the salts and urine in general from the grass and the soil. Usually, you will see one of two options. The whole lawn will recover or most of it will recover but you will still see brown spots.
If the latter issue is the case, you will have to remove the grass that is brown and use a repair grass kit. What this means is that you will have to plant the grass again but only in the area that is brown. There are special kits for that on the market that are cheap and work well. Yes, you can plant seeds again but this is a more complicated and time-consuming process. One way or another you will end up with the lawn you are going to like and that will look perfect.
Ideally, you will not allow your dog to play or even walk on the lawn (you shouldn’t walk either) until you mow the lawn 3- 4 times. After that, you can walk and play with your dog on your ‘’new’’ lawn.
The Final Word
Here is everything you need to know that is related to female dogs pee kills grass topic. Any type of urine can cause this and you will have to start with prevention. If it is too late, still use preventative methods and fix your lawn so it looks nice once again.