Urine burns in grass/smelly pee

[Stacy]

I know there has been a discussion on this before, but the search function doesn't seem to be working right now. And disclaimer, this is totally unimportant. Just something I was thinking about while sitting on the couch. 

Maggie is destroying the grass! I'm not a big yard person. I don't do anything but mow, I don't use any chemicals at all and probably a good 35% of the yard is clover. But with all the dogs I've had I haven't seen this. She leaves these, probably 6" round spots of dead grass all over. I would blame it on her size, but Ava was bigger than her and that never happened. Is it because Maggie eats a higher protein dog food? I don't care enough to try to fix it, but I just look at them and think, huh. It's like tiny little crop circles all over my yard.

In addition, her urine smells so strong. Just of pee but really strongly of pee. Medically she's fine. She had a urinalysis a few months ago and she's totally healthy. I just wondered if those two things are linked to one another and then caused by the high protein dog food she eats. I  know it's good dog food, but holy pee smell batman!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The odd thing is that this didn;t happen with Ava, because urine burns grass. It's the nitrogen content in the urine. A little nitrogen actually helps the grass grow. But larger concentrations will burn it. It happens more with female dogs, because the males usually lift their legs and direct the urine toward a tree or bush, or in several different places,  while the females just squat and let it all out in one place on your grass. Maybe Ava urinated more like a male, near bushes, etc? I had a female Poodle who did that. 
Does Maggie drink much water? The urine is going to be more concentrated and therefore smell stronger earlier in the day (hence the reason you bring a "first morning sample" when you have a urinalysis done) and then as the dog drinks water throughout the day, it becomes less so. (Same with people). Encouraging more water consumption might help. 

I doubt that the protein content of her food has much to do with this. Higher protein diets do cause more nitrogen to be excreted, at least in humans, but 35% protein is really not so high. I doubt you would see any difference if she was eating a food with 28% protein. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I've been having trouble with the main search feature too, but if you do your search in the forum, it works. 

I found these discussions for you, the main concensus seems to be that nothing helps with the burns in the grass except hosing it down immediately after the dog pees. 

These are only a few of the many discussions I found on this topic. But you get the idea. This is really common, so muc so that Ava was the exception, not Maggie, lol. 

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/urine-burn-marks-in-grass

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/my-in-laws-are-getting-co...

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/2065244:Topic:118696

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/are-urine-neutralizers-fo...

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/pee-burns?id=2065244%3ATo...

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/new-problem-grass-and-female

https://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/how-to-avoid-burned-grass...

[Stacy]

You always have the best search skills!

You make me think though. Ava was always very polite. She always pottied in the back corner. The grass is thicker there, and more real grass instead of weeds. So it makes me think that possibly that grass is less susceptible to urine burn and that I just didn't notice as much back there. Maggie is more of a "wherever the mood strikes," kind of girl. I see her spots closer to the house. It's not like we were ever going to make lawn and garden anyway! 

I feel like she drinks an adequate amount for a dog her size. I don't necessarily want her to need to pee more frequently! And I definitely don't care enough to follow her around with the hose. I just thought it was funny because I've always heard about it, but I've never really noticed it before. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

It makes me think about your poor carpet inside the house. But at least the pee is outside now. I wish Annabelle was a "wherever the mood strikes" kind of girl. It can sometimes take her a good 5 minutes of sniffing the backyard to find the "perfect" spot. If I am with her and say "Annie, just pick a spot and go", I swear she looks up and gives me the side eye. 

For several days, my computer or phone wouldn't let me on here. It has just been the last week, I have been able to. 

[Stacy]

I know! The carpet. It's been rough. And for every step forward Maggie takes I then have to go back and say...well maybe not. She was doing so well about peeing outside even when I worked, and then I was off for a couple weeks and she decided maybe peeing inside while I was gone was okay again. The Rug Doctor is getting another work out. But this week she's decided that she's crate trained. She went in there all on her own and no fussing while she was there. So maybe this will stick. Because last week she decided not only would she pee on the carpet but she might like to eat some stuff too. There was a tasty sun catcher and then another day there was a tasty picture frame. I'm not so worried about the stuff, but I do worry about foreign body ingestion. 

Here's the thing about Maggie though. We now know that she came from a terrible puppy mill with multiple USDA infractions, and I don't think the USDA standards are that high in the first place. She was there at least the first 4 months of her life. And then who knows what happened after she was purchased. I doubt that it was much of anything good.

That's the first year and a half of her life that we are working to overcome. All those important socialization weeks? Missed. All that good puppy stuff she should have learned? I bet there wasn't much of that either. But she has made such amazing progress in the last four months. She's like a completely different dog. She's so smart and resilient and adaptable. I wish I could go back and see what she would be like if she had a good start to life. But she has the rest of her life to figure out all the good stuff. I think she's becoming a pretty happy dog.  And I'm hopeful that the carpet might survive too. 

When I say wherever the mood strikes, I don't mean on my time though! She doesn't potty on leash. She's never so much as tinkled on a walk. It could be very interesting when we're away from home. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

Awwe, so sad about Maggies life before she was rescued. At least she has you and Katie now. I'm glad the crate training is coming along. Good luck on your trip. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If it makes anyone feel any better, Jasper is burning my grass, lol. He still mostly squats to pee, and he is definitely a "wherever the mood strikes" kind of guy. :)

[Stacy]

I'm kind of surprised. He's so little. I definitely never noticed that with my little guys. He's also so cute. I just want to give him a big hug and a kiss.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Aw, thanks. :)
They're little burns, lol.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Because of the drought in California, we let our yard go to dirt.  The drought was briefly declared over and I had sod installed - supposed tough sod - the dogs began ruining it immediately so I thought it was because it was new.  I kept them off it ALL winter - they still burned it with their pee immediately.  We had plugs of St. Augustine put in (I couldn't afford to re-sod entirely).  I let that began to spread before letting them on it for limited periods.  The supposed dog friendly turf is still burning and not regenerating, the St. Augustine seems to hold its own but it spreads slowly.  I am sooooooo sad about this.  I am not a yard person, but I spent a bunch of money having sod laid - and for the dogs, and I'm still limiting their access.  I thought it might be due to the fact that there are three of them and they pee on top of each other or pee in some of the same places.  That you have one dog who is ruining the lawn is also sad - in the old days I had dogs and grass and it was fine, but no more.  I don't know what to do so I'll check out other's answers. 

PS the guy I hired (I really went whole hog trying to get grass to grow!) suggested some of the products you buy and give the dogs.  I researched it and the only thing that really helps is to flush the grassy area right after they pee.  We have a dog door, so monitoring every pee break isn't possible unless I close the door - I am tempted.....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, those products you feed to the dogs are worthless.

If it makes you feel any better, I had the yard re-sodded several times because Jackdoodle tore out the grass playing ball. If it's not pee, it's an 85 lb dog racing back and forth to catch and return tennis balls. Dogs and nice lawns just do not mix, lol. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Our next dog will be (close to) that big... I hadn't thought about that lol.  

It's ok we're not that picky about our lawn :p