Well we all have them( especially if we have bitches), and it seems any one of mine needs to pee just once to create a lovely yellow patch.

The mystery is this: Why are local parks not COVERED in urine patches! I have never, ever seen just one - anywhere. If I could just solve this mystery I could have a nice lawn. Any ideas all you Einsteins??

Kat

I would think (and this is just my humble opinion ) that parks are so vast that the bitches don't pee on the same bit of grass, whereas your own garden is so small in comparison that the bitches will naturally pee on top of where they have already peed so they are just covering their own scent.

If it isn't that then I have no idea

> pee on top of where they have already peed

Think you are probably right. Louis chooses to do it in about 4 favourite places in the garden - very yellow patches

I've wondered about that too.  My dog only has to wee once to kill off a patch of my lawn but I've never seen any patches like this in the park either.   Obviously the park grass must be made of stronger stuff!

There are indeed different types of grass suitable for different uses - football pitch grass will be a tougher breed than bowling-green grass.

Yes I know but do they also differ in their resistance to being killed off by urine?

It all grows back greener than before if it's left alone. I expect the grass in the park is left longer than most lawns so is under less stress too.

My grass doesn't seem to grow back at all - the lawn now has more bare patches than grass And I have dogs not bitches but they do squat like girls.

It all grows back greener than before if it's left alone

Mine doesn't - when it's dead, it stays dead!  My boy doesn't mess about LOL   If only I could get him to wee on the weeds

Mine too!  It has turned to a yellow slushy mush and no matter how often I dig it out and replant grass it stays a disgusting mess.

Um, established grass that has wild grass ect in it tend to ive up to urine better than 'lawns' that are 'treated'!!!
New turf without any roots are terrible for urie burn!!!.
From experienece there is no cut and dried way to stop it.
I know someone who had a dog who let them drink tea, and there were no patches. but as soon as we laid a new lawn it didnt work.
Fine grass ~(without Rye) is more vunerable than with rye turf, but they still succomb!!
Work this one out,
I lost my old girl in Dec, who used to wee in the same place, the bare ptches are still there!!!!! she must have concentrated the area so much over 8 months that it will take a while to grow back!!!!
Lea

>Mine doesn't - when it's dead, it stays dead!

How long have you left it though?

My boy never seems to wee in the same places - wish he would and then I would have fewer dead patches!

3 years!

>3 years!

Ah.

Right.

I find that after three months or so the dead patches have vanished. Have you considered nappies?

How long have you left it though?

All through the winter and part of the spring.  I must admit that eventually, mostly the bare patches are covered but I think that is more down to grass growing in from round the edges of the bare patches rather than the areas themselves recovering.

> If only I could get him to wee on the weeds

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!

Maybe i'm in the minority but my dogs wee doesnt change the colour of the grass

Not sure about the theory of park grass doesnt change because dogs are not repeatedly marking the same spot like they do in the garden at home....dont different dogs constantly mark the same spot in parks to make their scent dominate the previous dogs?

I have 2 problems with my lawn, the horrible yellow/brown patches and then lush green twice as long as everything else patches. I'm thinking that the wee is stronger first thing in the morning and kills the grass and that the weaker stuff is good fertiliser. I have both dogs and bitches, neutered and un-neutered. I guess it depends on how much water is already in the lawn as well.

I'm puzzled by the grass in our garden. We have a big garden (2 acres) but the dogs always wee in one particular spot. We have some yellow patches but also lots of circular patches where the grass is really long and green which I think is also caused by the wee!? We have 3 bitches who constantly mark over each others wee. I have heard that if you put tomato ketchup in the dog's food, it stops the grass being burnt - but not tried this myself! Has anyone else heard of this?

Mine definitely leave a patch after just one wee LOL, I know because I am standing on my head at the moment trying to keep them off one of the lawns, so their access has been very limited (and seen!).

I have heard of the tomato juice thing, don't know if it works. I think it's meant to offset/neutralise the acidity of the urine. I can't really do that as a couple of the dogs have arthritis, and tomato can aggravate it.

> It all grows back greener than before if it's left alone. I expect the grass in the park is left longer than most lawns so is under less stress too.

That must be why my garden looks like a bl**dy jungle then!!

Poxy stuff.

If the lawn is lacking in nitrogen then the urine will usually cause darker green patches with more growth, whereas if the lawn is well fed then it is more likely to scorch it.
The best thing is to water it well immediately after to dilute the urine and regular mowing will help it to recover and fill in the patches, otherwise overseed with a rye mix.
There's loads of products that you put in the dogs water that supposedly stop urine burn, but don't know how effective they are.

Swap your brown bits for my crazy golf lawn, my two boys are diggers and buriers. Bones disappear (rawhide or smoked) cause the cocker is a burier, border digs them up and cocker bury's the damn things again.
I also have routes through the flower beds where they play chase, border runs around, cocker cuts off the corners cause his legs are shorter.
Plus borders play, we have plastic bottles, plastic pots all over the show, he sits in the garden chucking them in the air then running around, and chucking them again. Really funny to watch, cocker just sits on your feet and lifts an eyebrow to say "he's at it again Mum".

I have two bitches, but no yellow patches and never had any , but we have a holiday cottage next to us (same grass, just fenced off) which has several yellow patches .  Is it anything to so with their food?

Strangely our grass(cant really call it lawn) showed burnt yellow patches with previous bitch. Now then when we had a boy there  was no sign of this untill our new girl came along and it so plain to see where she goes.....yellow patches all over again.

Karen;)

My bitch leaves yellow patches sometimes, but not others.  So it definitely has to do with the concentration of some chemical in the urine.  The patches all do grow back lusher too.   Although I gave up on my lawn a few years ago - we're on heavy clay which is compacted by needing to walk on it during the winter (to clean up dog mess!) - so anything that is green and survives is okay with me at this point.

My boy dog is *much* more destructive in terms of my garden.   I have box balls that I nutured from little cheap plants to big lush round globes.  A couple of months after getting him I thought they had been attacked by box blight - and then I watched him and realized his lifting his leg up on them was burning off the leaves.    Several other types of shrubs are all the worse for it too.  I'd take brown patches on the lawn any day.

Well I'm beginning to feel quite lucky really

I am going to keep the grass longer, water the patches whenever I can and if some go belly up, re-seed or patch in new turf! I have also bought something called a pee-post! Its probably a complete rip off, but it supposedly releases pheromones to attrac them to go in one area. I've also bought a green spray for the patches to disguise them a bit while they grow back - it will probably look horrendous Still, I will try most things to preserve my lawn. I'm a bit precious about it right now as we returfed it a couple of months back, because over the years it had just turned into a big brown sludge patch. It doesn't help that 2 GSDs race flat out and brake quickly on it - poor turf. We have two lawns split by a terrace, and I really don't mind them peeing their heads off on the top one, as it's wilder up there anyway, but no - too lazy. First bit of grass they step on - squat!!!

I too have toys everywhere, and a 'racetrack'. When they were pups my gardening was often undone, and I have pictures of them removing various plants LOL, but they've grown out of that now. I do thank goodness they are not diggers - that I would find hard to deal with.

I don't fancy using something like dog rocks, that changes their urine chemistry, I won't mess about with their natural bodily functions.
I don't think it's diet, they are all raw fed.

Oh well, I'll just see how it goes, thanks for all your replies, and the laughs you gave me and made me feel quite trivial in my quest for green!

K

A lot has to do with your soil as well.  Is it sandy?  Loamy?  Clay?  Clay soils, with their poor drainage, will hold the urine longer and take longer to recover.

Two people said one wee in one place and the grass was killed.  My Vet said that was an indication your dog's urine is too alkaline.  It may be burning the dog as well.  Something to ask your Vet about.

JJ

I never even considered that. I will ask my vet about it next time I'm there. Do you know whether they can do anything to alter the chemistry?

Thanks for that
K

>Do you know whether they can do anything to alter the chemistry?

Don't do anything to alter the chemistry of your bitch's urine until you've tested it first! Getting it wrong can lead to infections, crystals or stones - and stones can be fatal.

No No No JG - I don't like to mess about with my dogs bodies, which is why I've never tried the dog rocks. What I was really trying to say was that if after testing it was found to be unbalanced, can they do anything about it I would never, ever put my dogs health in jeopardy. But thanks for the pointing it out anyway.
Kat

I found this the other day which I thought was quite enlightening

Dog urine causes dead patches and lawn burn due to the high levels of nitrogen that is released into the lawn through the urine. Nitrogen is actually a lawn-growth stimulant that encourages lawn growth when properly applied as a fertilizer. The problem presented with dog urine is that since most dogs urinate in one spot, that will introduce large amounts of liquid nitrogen (urine) to that spot thereby causing a burning reaction and even a dead-spot in the lawn. Often times, the effected spot will show vigorous grass growth around the spot due to the nitrogen levels that stimulate growth around the edges

I also read that things like clover are much more resistant to being killed by wee so chuck out the weedkiller everyone LOL

Our ESS was tested and her urine was too alkaline.  We actually discovered her problem not from the lawn, but because she was having little dribbling accidents in the house.  Our Vet said that is an indication her urine is burning her. It hurt when she peed, so she tried not to pee, then she had accidents because she couldn't hold on any longer.  His mention of the lawn was just an attempt to see if we had noticed other symptoms, like the lawn, which we had.  We did treat her with something but I'm sorry, it was a long time ago and I don't remember what it was.  I do remember she was only treated for a few weeks till her PH changed back to more normal. 

In later life she was treated for spay incontinence with stilbestrol, for the rest of her life.  I believe the two are unrelated though, anyone know for sure?  I mean the alkalinity problem is not the same as the spay incontinence problem?

Annie

Funnily enough I have found a lawn seed which includes microclover (grows really close to the ground) which they are using for sports pitches. I was thinking of overseeding with this in the autumn - think I might try that!
K

I just looked up microclover and I'm going to try to get some.  Our soil is hardly soil at all but sand.  It's impossible to keep a load of topsoil on it for very long and not very ecologically sound either.  Sound like the ideal thing for our dry shade situation too.

Yes JJ, I thought it sounded good, so I'm going to give it a go