Burnt Grass

[Tricia Campbell]

Help! About a month ago we had our backyard leveled & had new sod put down. I was concerned that when Duffy peed he would leave
burn marks on the new grass. My landscaper told me that male dogs
don't ruin the grass when they pee that it only happens with female dogs. Well, I am starting to see burn spots on my new lawn. I don't
know if what my landscaper says is true & if it is true am I feeding
Duffy food that is producing acid. I need to save this new lawn ( I have one very upset husband).

[Adina P]

It's not acid, but it is inevitable. Urine contains a large amount of nitrogenous waste--you can't avoid that it's part of what pee IS. Nitrogen is also a fertilizing agent and what happens is that dogs end up OVERfertilizing the lawn where they pee. There really isn't anything you can change in his diet and no pill that can actually change this major urine constituent (nitrogen). The reason that the landscaper probably said what he said is that typically males tend to mark a little here and a little there while females just let it all pour out in one spot. But this is not accurate. Rosco RARELY marks in our yard--marking is usually in outside territory or if a strange animal or dog has been there.

In any case the ONLY way to prevent burning is to carry the hose with you or a watering can and follow your dog out for every pee and water down the area (to dilute the Nitrogen in one spot) right after your dog pees.

I TRIED that after we got our backyard leveled and sod laid down...it's not fun or practical. So I gave up and now we have burned spots. But if you only have one dog...it shouldn't be too bad. You can teach him to pee in ONE area only I suppose...that might keep the burned grass contained.

[Tamara & Giada]

There are treats to feed your dog that prevent this. They need to get them everyday. We never had the problen until this year.......don't know why the change, but we give them both the green treats and it did work!! Try Petsmart, that is where we got ours. GL:)

[Tricia Campbell]

Thanks Adina for the educated answer. So the end result is - it is was it is :)

[Adina P]

I think so :-( There are all sorts of products sold that you can add to your dog's food that CLAIM they change your dog's urine but I don't buy it. It's sort of like breath mints can change the smell and maybe some tiny amount of the "chemistry" of your breath...but you still exhale contains carbon dioxide no matter what. Perhaps if you watered even every 3rd Duffy pee you might prevent some extra burning?

[38kijwn0b88tn]

I've been told by groomers and vets that it's caused by extra iron in the water. (If that's true), they said to give your dog filtered water. Also there are plenty of males that will squat to pee. Generally males lift their leg so they can pee "higher" than the dog that was there before. If you put your dog in a place, say a fenced yard with no trees or anything else to pee "on", he would probably sniff around and pee "on top" of another pee spot by squatting.
Try the filtered water trick for about two weeks and see if that works! Good luck and if it does, let us all know!

[sbis0oszc95r]

Neutered males have less acid in their urine, so maybe it will get better once he's neutered?

[Adina P]

But it's not acid...it's Nitrogen and that really can't be changed.

[Tricia Campbell]

Duffy gets neutered on Sept. 22nd I'll let you all know if anything changes.

[Tricia Campbell]

I'll try the filtered water & keep you posted.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I hate to disagree with anyone's vet, but plain old water has a lot of valuable minerals that I'm guessing would be removed in the filtered water.
The article that Marcia supplied the link for has a lot of good info & ideas. I'd also suggest that if you have room, a separate "dog run" area, maybe off to one side of the house, filled with pea gravel (no pun intended) might help. I know there are things you can buy to attract a dog to a particular area to relieve himself. He may also start lifting his leg as he gets older...a lot of dogs don't start doing this until they're well past a year old. It helps if there is a tree, tall evergreen shrub, etc., for them to use.

[Adina P]

um...Clark tried to "teach" Rosco how to pee on our trees at home...but it didn't work...LOL. Clark likes to think that Rosco was too intimidated by his pure ALPHA-ness to attempt to mark our trees after that ;-)

[ClarkP]

Rosco recognized the true Alpha in his pack and has peed like a girl ever since.