Brown Spots from Dog

libits – posted 14 August 2001 12:18

I HAD a beautiful sodded lawn. And then along came Bailey… I have two dogs, both male, both mixed breeds. One is 3 years old and did not cause a problem last year with the lawn (summer of 2000 was the first summer for the lawn.)I got Bailey (who is 10 months) this past January and my lawn is awful! His urine is leaving dead spots all over. I’ve tried G-Whiz in the water, it didn’t work. I had his urine/pH tested and it was a 5.0 (6.5 is normal for dogs). The other dog tested at 8.5. I thought I might have the wrong dog accused, but I started marking the spots with their initial. It IS Bailey, the low pH dog. My vet wants me to try a very expensive dog food for 5 days and retest them. Could it be the soil? Could it be the fertilizer? I love Bailey and want to keep him. He deserves a nice life since he came from a puppy mill, but I’d really like to have a nice lawn, too. Between the brown spots and the initials in the lawn, I’m sure to overhead planes it looks like a chemistry experiment gone terribly wrong. Someone PLEASE help me! Thank you very much.

tdkx – posted 19 August 2001 09:44

Hi, Here is the problem with your lawn. You are allowing these dogs to urinate on it! This has very little to do with PH and a lot more to do with high soluble salts. Urine has a very high soluble salt content and this causes a “burn spot” in the lawn. As for expensive dog food, I would say that is not necessary but I am not a veterinarian. I am, however, very knowledgeable with turfgrass. You need to train your dogs to do their duty in a specific area. If you can accomplish this(I have dogs too)then you can simply flood the urine spots with great amounts of water to get rid of the salts. Eventually, the grass will fill in the dead areas. If you want to, you can rake out thes areas and re-seed them. Just remember that you must wash out these areas with a lot of water. Try letting a hose run on these areas for about an hour and that should do it. You can keep your dog as long as you are strict with it.:-))) And don’t let someone sell you something that you don’t need regarding pets. If your pets are happy and energetic then they are fine and don’t need special food. Just make sure you train them to do what you want them to do.(use treats)

Good Luck,TDKX

[Note: This message has been edited by seed]

Pamela P – posted 16 April 2002 13:41

Try using a product called Green-ums available for Drs. Foster and Smith Pet Supply (www.drsfostersmith.com). I had the same problem you are having, tried this product, and was amazed at how well it works. It is a dietary supplement the neutralizes the prodicts in urine that cause the grass to brown. It tastes good to the dogs, so they eat them right up!

Pamela

Dave – posted 21 April 2002 05:34

Aside from many products that prevent or reduce browning from dog urine, there’s a spray that tints the dead grass green. It’s in the pet stores (I saw it in PetSmart yesterday) and it may be useful for brown or discolored areas from other reasons, i.e. frost, disease, et cetera. Just spray the brown spot, and POOF! Green grass appears. Science is wonderful.

mrsalvo – posted 04 June 2002 12:38

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/turf/dog_lawn_problems.html

libits – posted 04 June 2002 14:17

I am very pleased to announce that whatever Bailey was going through as a puppy last summer, he has now outgrown. My lawn is perfect once again (except for a few residual spots from last year). I would like to add, however, that late last summer I put Bailey on bottled water and the problem did improve substantially almost immediately. (I guess that doesn’t say much for our water supply.) For those of you with puppies, hang in there! The problem may vanish as they approach the one year mark.

Thanks for all the support–you’re a great group!

janiner – posted 03 July 2002 21:27

I’m having the same problem, and am trying the Green-Ums tablets. I have a question for anyone who has good luck with them – do you give the tablets all at once, or split them up? My dogs are getting two tablets per day, one per meal, and so far it doesn’t seem to be making a whole lot of difference. Should I be giving them all at once, and if so, does it matter if it is at breakfast or dinner? Or maybe I am too impatient, since it has been less than a week; does it take a while for them to start working?

thanks,

janine

MonkeyPigDog – posted 10 July 2002 21:17

This is a problem with puppy urine. Because of the high fat content of puppy food, their urine is very toxic and easily burns many types of grass. You should see this go away after they move to a lower fat, adult dog food. I made the best of it with my two pups by spraying the area with generous amounts of water. If you catch it right away, you shouldn’t see any grass burn. I also took my puppies out to do their “business” on a leash. This insured that any burn was basically in the same area. But, of course, you can’t watch the pups all the time so their will be some exceptions. Good luck!

Donna Gee – posted 22 October 2003 09:36

http://www.pup-n-stuff.com/product.asp?0=227&1=228&3=74 Go here for Green ums. Only $3.99 a bag!Pup-N-Stuff.com

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 23 October 2003 11:46

I hope y’all read mrsalvo’s link to the Texas A&M study. It pretty much debunks all the ideas floating around as to why the grass dies off. The reason (to cut to the chase) is an overdose of nitrogen from the urine.

The organic solution is to rebalance the overdose of nitrogen with an overdose of carbon. The best way to get carbon in the soil is to dump sugar on it. I have used table sugar (one heaping handful per spot) on dog urine spots with good results. I have tried watered down molasses but have not come up with a dose that works. Generally I dilute 3 ounces of molasses per gallon of water, but how much to spray to get an overdose is what I don’t know.

The theory as to why sugar works is that the soil microbes get out of balance with the excess nitrogen. When the sugar is brought in, it stimulates the microbes to repopulate. Once they repopulate in a few weeks, the soil and grass return to a balanced condition.

Donna Gee – posted 22 February 2004 12:02

http://www.pup-n-stuff.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=229green-um treats and green-um tablets