A Common Dog Lawn Problem
by Peter Hvidstem
Brown spots can
be seen in lawns of many or most home owners. These spots can be
and usually are the cause of a disease or some sort of pest.
Dog owners take note: some brown spots in your lawn could have been
caused by your dog; especially if your dog is of the female gender.
These spot are the result of what is called “urine burn”. Let us discuss
a little about how dog urine can destroy parts of your lawn.
Fig2.
Dog urine has high concentrations of the nitrogen salt ammonia. It is fairly acidic and causes the leaves of grass to burn when in high concentrations. This is the initial culprit of urine burn. The urine then enters the soil and salts begin to accumulate. High salt concentrations in soils can also be very harmful to the health of the grass. Female dogs seem to produce more damage when urinating simply because the finish there business in one spot, unlike male dogs who often run around the yard “marking their territory” in several different spots subsequently releasing smaller doses of urine, which can be handled by the plants. There are only a few possible methods to try and reduce the number of urine burn areas in your lawn:
• First, try and prevent
this from ever occurring by teaching your dog to go in other areas
such as parks or fields.
• Feeding your dog high quality dog food may help in the breakdown of proteins
in your pets body, which will possibly lead to lower amounts of nitrogen
for extraction.
• If burns are present, water the brown areas generously to help leach salts
and excess nitrogen out of the root zone. Continue this practice until the
green grass reappears.
With the use of these techniques, the number of urine burn areas in your lawn should decrease. With fewer lawn problems, dog owners should enjoy fewer side effects of dog ownership. Dogs will also benefit from fewer urine burn areas in their owners lawn: It will mean a reduction in the number of things that their owner will blame on them.
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