Dealing with the brown spots on the lawn

By Melanie Mathieson
Gardening Guru

Because many people think that pets and gardening don’t mix, visitors to my yard are often surprised that I own a large breed dog that I allow to run and play freely in the yard. When you watch him chase his Frisbee or ball it is evident that I have trained him to avoid the gardens. Although this column is about dealing with brown spots on the lawn, I just wanted to mention that a dog can be trained to respect your garden and other areas of your yard.
While nitrogen is an essential component in healthy soil, high concentrations, from over fertilizing or dog urine, can cause grass and plants to turn yellow or brown. Dog urine is naturally high in nitrogen, salts and other compounds that can cause grass burns. Dog urine by alone can lead to brown spots of dead grass but the combination of urine and fertilizer almost always results in an overdose of nitrogen causing severe burn spots in the lawn. Because of this and for the safety of my dog I always fertilize the yard in sections making sure the dog does not walk on the newly fertilized areas for at least a week. It takes longer to fertilize this way but to ensure the dog does not get burnt paws or sick from the fertilizer and to prevent future brown spots, it is well worth the effort. And as I always caution make sure you follow the directions exactly on the bag of fertilizer.
Many believe that female dog urine causes more trouble to the lawn than male dog urine, because female dogs squat to urinate and males like to mark on other things by lifting their leg. Some males will urinate directly on the lawn too, as mine does. Although the composition of a dog’s urine does not vary that much between male and female dogs, especially when spayed or neutered, I have a theory about male dog urine. A dominating male dog will hold on to their urine for extended periods in order to save it for marking and when your male dog finally does urinate on the lawn the concentration of the chemicals in the urine may be greater than when a female urinates regularly on the lawn. Now on the other hand the scent of a dominating male may keep other pets, vermin and deer out of your yard so a few brown spots are well worth it.
I like many other gardeners and homeowners take pride in a beautiful lawn and my lawn does have brown spots in it as well as extra green spots (more nitrogen there) caused by my dog. Many dog owners feel that it’s just part of living with dogs. But there are some ways to deal with the spots such as the following listed below. You can try more than one option at a time for maximum results. There is no guaranteed way to end urine spots in the yard, but the following methods might help reduce grass burns caused by dog urine:
•Immediately after your dog urinates, use a garden hose to rinse off the area. This can be quite time consuming but you can also leave pail of water near your potty area and douse the spot this way too. This is also difficult to do in the winter. And I find most of my brown spots after the snow melts.
•Consider switching to a low-nitrogen and pet-safe fertilizer for your lawn.
•Train your dog to urinate in one area. There are books in the library and websites that can offer more suggestions on how to do this.
•Plant a urine-resistant ground cover (such as clover) in your entire yard or just in the designated area. Or you might also try creating a more dog friendly landscape in your entire yard, by converting to hard-scape or mulched potty areas; building decorative fencing around tree bases, certain areas of the yard or gardens; etc.
•Consider giving your dog a supplement or food additive (available at vets or pet supply stores) that is designed to neutralize the nitrogen in the urine. As always, ask your vet before starting any supplement. Additionally, never attempt to alter your dog’s urine pH unless specifically recommended by your vet.
Remember that other animals might have access to your yard and their urine can cause lawn damage as well so you may have to find a solution to that situation before you can completely solve your brown spot problem.
While this column focused on dog urine, I also urge you to pick up feces as soon as you can as it can also cause browning of the grass, not to mention it can carry bacteria that may be harmful to you, children and your pets.
To repair brown spots, rake up and remove the dead grass, add some top soil over the spot, then sprinkle grass seed over the spot. Make sure to water regularly until the lawn patch is established and prevent any foot traffic (human or pet) or any urination on the spot until the new grass matches the rest of your lawn.
I let my dog have the run of the yard and let him mark territory wherever he wants in order to keep deer, other animals and other dogs out of the yard. I fix the brown spots each spring and find with thorough and regular lawn care it doesn’t take long for the lawn to match all over. I think it is a small price to pay to enjoy having a dog with me while I spend time in my yard and for his hard work on keeping other animal intruders out of his yard. So after considering the rewards your dog provides you, you may consider a few brown spots are not so bad after all.