Unfortunately, your beautiful lawn that you care so much about, spend a ton of money on, and put many hours into keeping it that way, is also your fur friend’s bathroom. Dog urine is not the most damaging of the animal kingdom, but it does cause problems to grass, flowers, and garden plants. Luckily, dogs are very smart, and will learn what you teach them to prevent this problem altogether. And, there are some other ways to minimize the damage Rover does to your lawn.

Dog Waste Damage

While the topic here is dog urine, it should be said that dog feces is not particularly good for your yard, despite widespread belief. Feces is not good for plants until it changes and breaks down, so much so that it is not even considered poop anymore. And, if you really wanted to compost your dog’s waste, you absolutely can. Just mix it with dirt and other compost and wait for it to break down. Worms love dog waste.

Anyways, dogs love to urinate on certain things in the yard to mark their territory, or just because it is instinctual, or they are mad at you because you forgot to give them a treat that morning. Either way, dogs pee on stuff. That means your lawn, all your flowers, your beautiful garden fruits and veggies, and everything else has a high chance of danger from dog pee. Obviously, urine is waste, so it is toxic, and it does an excellent job of killing plants. Because it is a liquid, plants will soak it up through their roots, causing the plant to go into shock and will die.

Solutions to Dog Urine Problems

First, your dog is very smart. They will learn anything you teach them. Pick a designated area of your lawn where your dog can go potty. Maybe even invest in a kennel or put some rock down in your designated area so that the dog waste can be hosed off and picked up to be disposed of easily. Work with your dog to train them to stay away from plants, bushes, and, especially the garden. If you are super vigilant, you can hose off the place where they just urinated, so the effects of it will be minimal, or will even have no effects at all. But, who has time for that?

The easiest way to keep your lawn from getting bare spots everywhere from dog urine is to give your dog a supplement or treat that levels out the pH of your dog’s urine, rendering it harmless to your lawn. There are products on the market that do a wonderful job of denuclearizing your dog’s waste. It is not expensive and comes in many forms. They can be pills, treats, or other products that are easy to feed your dog. You can also put the products in their food, and even their water with a liquid product.

Ensuring your dog has a proper diet will also help their waste to not be so toxic. Feeding them healthy, nutritious dog food and ensuring they get fresh water multiple times a day should be enough to alleviate most of the problems that dog urine causes. Feeding them a high fat diet, like giving them the fat scraps when you cook meat or giving them known foods that increase the pH level of urine, like asparagus, will not help the situation. Be sure to research a little further about what foods will help solve the problem of dog urine in your yard, how much water your dog should be drinking, and other useful information to keep Fido as healthy as possible.

If you want another way to help the problem, you can find a product that is an all-natural liquid spray that helps balance the pH of urine to spray in spots where you see yellowing of grass, or grass that is beginning to wilt. But, designating a potty spot in your yard is the only way to fully prevent dog urine from ruining your entire lawn.