Help and advice please - Page 1

We have just laid a new lawn and it looks like a patch work quilt, I have two dogs one being a bitch,

I have put them on Green-um tablets which is supposed to neutralise there urine but it doesn't seem to be working,

Someone has told me to put tomato juice into there food as this cures the burning on lawns, has anyone heard of this before orhas some good advice.

The amonia in the urine,  temporarilly turns the grass yellow because it is simular to an OVER Fertilization reaction,  However after a week you will notice that yellow spot is now taller and greener than the rest of your lawn...   I don't think I've ever heard of those tablets working,  and I have never heard of the tomato juice thing either.

Commercial Farms and Ranches use Fetilizers that are high concentrate of Amonia,  I don't worry about it anymore cause I know that yellow spot is gonna turn green in a few days...

There is another brand that works a lot better than the Green-ums, but I don't like to give stuff like that to a dog longterm. So I removed the sod from a big area of my yard, installed some hardy landscaping and a small pond and covered the ground with large pines chips. It didn't take more than a day or 2 to teach Blitz to use that  area to urinate, he has his BM's wherever, they are too hard to clean up from the pine chips. In lieu of making a specific area of continuing with those pills, the only thing you can do it follow them around with a hose or a sprinkling can and wash down the areas as soon as they go. Unlike Echo's dogs, Blitz's urine kills the grass, it never comes back on it own and I have to plant grass seed in those spots. It's a lot easier to give him his ownarea that can be sanitised just by hosing it down now and then. There has never been any odor at all, maybe due to the pine chips.

Blitzen,  No kidding ???    That is weird,  But I'm glad to hear it from you anyone else I may not have beleived it,  Cause the grass comes back greener and taller in the spots where the dogs urinate,  I mean it's so weird you have yellow spot then a week later you look over and think what the heck why is there a patch of greener taller grass there and then remember oh ya,  dog went pee there....    That's crazy that the grass never comes back for you,   Now you have me wondering what is the difference,  must be a PH thing ? do you think ?    Thank You for sharing that,  cause I had no idea that some urine would actually kill off grass for good.

My dogs pee kills the grass too. It turns yellow, dies and leaves a patch I need to seed or water like crazy until the grass naturally takes over.

we just laid new sod in our front yard. angus will actually run from the front yard thru the house to the backyard to pee, while claire seems to like the new sod. so, we have these lovely round dead spots in our new sod, plus we had our typical heat waves in aug/early sept so that didn't help. the backyard has been established for years and we dont have dead spots there, but i think the new sod is just more susceptible to trouble. i try to water immed if claire pees, but it doesn't seem to help much. we're gonna wait til we're relatively sure we'll have no more 100+ weather and resod part of the front. once your lawn is established, it shouldn't be so bad (that's my theory and i'm sticking to it)

Let me tell you something about those green-um pills!  They have methionine in them which reduces the PH in your dog's system, which is supposed to be what stops the grass from dying.  

I was dog sitting and the owner where I was sitting did not have kennels for her dogs (FIRST MISTAKE) and let them in and out of the house as they please throughout the day.

On Sunday I came home to find the male (7 months old) lying in the living room in a puddle of pee, unable to move!  I ran around trying to find out what the hell he ate, I could tell he was poisoned, he was convulsing, and things were really bad.  I found a brand new bottle of those pills all chewed up (500 pills) I rushed him to the ER, and after 4 days in intensive care, he is good to go.  You don't even want to know the damn vet bill!!  I know even aspirin can be fatal if we over-consume, but I will not ever feed those to my dogs again!!!

So let me tell you how EASY it is to train your dog to potty in one place and not in the grass.  OOh and by the way males can ruin your grass too, it just depends on the dog, my old roommate had a female and her pee did not kill the grass, my female one spot and it's dead, my male seems to be even more potent!!!

I have 4 feet of bark surrounding my beautiful lawn, and within 4 days I toughy my female this is where you go potty.  I took her out on a leash the first two times, and then I would just walk out on the patio with her, and tell her to go over there and go potty.  Literally within 4 days, she understood, she must use the bark area for potty.  I got my male when he was 6 months old and thought it was going to be hard with him, since he had no OB really at all, and was a bit out of control.  I did the same thing, I took him out on a leash the first few times, then I stood by and watched him, he would start to pee in the grass, and I had to stop him, NNNNOOOOOO and he went right over to the bark., good boy!!!!  I also did not let the two dogs out together to go potty when I got my male, I needed him to concentrate on the area he was supposed to go in.

So now I have had him for 6 months, and Sasha is almost 4, they both only pee and poo in the bark on my side yard.  Super easy to clean the poop at all once, and I am not scared I am going to step in something when walking through my backyard, or mowing the grass!

It really is very simple to teach them to go in one area.  This is free, and there aren't any chemicals going into your dog!!!!  Good luck!  Kari

As I understand it, it is the nitrogen in dog urine that kills grass.  I believe some grasses are more resistant that others, your local nursery should be able to advise which grasses to plant in your area that will resist dog urine scald. Echo, I'd guess you have a urine resistant grass. Lucky you.

Anyway, I agree, teach the dogs where you want them to relieve themselves and that will pretty much solve your grass problems. When I let Blitz out, I just say - "go pee, sweetie" - and he runs spot on to his designated relief site. Of course he is an extraordinarily brilliant dog, so does everything I tell him to - not.  Both of my GSD's have been neutered males and both ruined my lawn. I don't think it's a bitch thing although the girls might concentrate their urine to the same spot/s while the boys tend to go everywhere. In that respect I can see where females might make a worse mess of the grass than the males. Both of my boys were neutered early before they started to lift their legs to pee on everything in sight. Blitz squats with one leg extended so he concentrates most of his urine in the same spot. BM's are a different story, I'll spare you the desciption of how he manages to spread one the entire length of the yard while holding several toys in his mout., I did say he's brilllinat, didn't I ?

Waya:

I moved into new construction 7 years ago and have struggled with trying to get nice grass to grow in the back yard.  I put new soil and seed the first and second year, but then gave up for the next 5.  I wish I had a picture before I had the back yard regraded, new soil and seed put in, but just picture a horse pasture.  All I had were rocks and a few weeds.  The backyard is fenced, but the only way I could get the yard to grow and to maintain the lawn was to figure a way out for the dogs to have a place to eliminate.  I took my old split rail fence and had my contracter build a coral within my fenced back yard.   He dug down 10 inches in the soil and put a weed liner down, and on top laid small stone.  The dogs have quickly learned to use this area which makes cleaning up very easy because I don't have to hunt for their poop!  It is the best investment I have made.  Now I don't dread rain because of the muddy paws tracking red clay dirt all thru my house.  The only thing is that occassionally after rain, you can detect a urine smell, so I bleach it about once a month or as needed.  Here is a picture of my new set up.  Please don't laugh at my attempt to stain the new addition to my deck.  Apparently there is a big difference between redwood semi translucent and non translucent.  I am in the process of staining my fence, but will have to restain the old part of the deck to match the new.  Just soooo sick of staining!

Here are the pic's:

Training a dog to pee or poop in a special area is easy and a good idea. My adult dogs wont even go on my property. I have what I refer to as the poop park. Empty lot with dead grass and star thistle in the summer. I make sure my daughter take the dogs there, before we leave in the car or go to a childrens park. This is also where I walk my dogs quickly morning, noon and about dinner time and again before bed to relieve themsleves. They go months without pottying in their kennel unless I leave town. My neighbors annoy me by walking their dogs down the sidewalk to piss and shit in everyones yards.  

A few people have watched what I do and have started to do the same. If they see us coming they stay at the other end and our dogs don't bother eachother at all. Funny I wanna make a big sign and post it up one night "Shit Break Park" LOL  Maybe more people in the neighborhood will get the hint.