Owning a four-legged friend will no doubt bring untold levels of joy to your life. They provide a loyal companion, get you out of the house and can even lower your risk of heart disease. Unfortunately apart from maybe scaring off badgers, your lawn isn’t likely to see any of these benefits.
The unfortunate fact is that dog urine contains a high level of nitrogen, and it’s this nitrogen that can cause areas of your lawn to become patchy and brown. Many lawn fertilisers do in fact contain nitrogen, as in small amounts it can actually enhance growth. This may be why many people feel that a female dog's urine will cause more harm to your lawn than their male counterpart.
The science behind this is quite simple, when depositing urine females tend to squat in one large concentrated dose, whereas a male moves around the garden marking his territory and generally urinating against upright structures or foliage. Understandably training a dog not to use your lawn as a toilet isn’t always practical; however, there are a few other remedies to deal with lawn burn.
Consider the breed
Firstly, it may be an idea to consider the breed and more importantly the size of your dog when first looking for your new pet. As a rule, larger dogs are always going to deposit more urine.
Alter their diet
Altering your dog’s diet may also have an effect on your lawns health. The nitrogen in urine is formed when protein is broken down for fuel; therefore urine from a dog with a high protein diet is more likely to burn your lawn.
Dilute the urine
Keeping your lawn well-watered will dilute the strength of the urine, in turn reducing the damage caused; for best results soak the area as soon as your dog has finished its business, this should wash away the urine before it begins to burn.
Tomato Juice?
There are stories of dog owners adding tomato juice to their pet’s food to reduce the acidity of the urine or using products such as dog rocks in their water, however, the effectiveness of these methods is very much up for debate!
Contact London Lawn
If you're looking to lay a new lawn in your garden, The London Lawn Turf Company offer quality lawn turf and topsoil available to buy online, as well as professional turf laying and landscaping services in and around London and the South. Call us today on
01959 897603 for more information.
