Whether it’s your own dog or that of a neighbour’s that has ventured into foreign territory, animals urinating in various patches across your perfectly crafted lawn can become a rather annoying inconvenience. Discoloured and patchy grass isn’t attractive in the slightest, especially if you invest a lot of time in creating a rich and luscious lawn with healthy topsoil.

How Your Grass Is Affected

Dog’s urine contains urea, a type of ammonia which later changes to nitrates, and this is what causes your grass and plants to burn and be destroyed. The concentration of urea in urine is usually highest first thing in the morning before your or your neighbour’s dog has not yet diluted it with water. This will cause more damage to your turf so prevention should ideally start here.

Simple Steps to Prevention

Sadly our dogs are always going to want to take a quick toilet break on our lovely fresh lawns, luckily there are some steps we can take to deter them away from the garden and minimise the damage that’s caused.

1. 1.       Prepare The Hose

…or watering can. You’re going to need them. Diluting the urea will minimise the damage caused to your grass by reducing the strength of the nitrates that are burning it. This means waiting for your dog to complete its business, then immediately spreading a little fresh water over the area. This will be especially important first thing in the morning when the concentration of urea in your dog’s urine is at its highest.

1. 2.       Deter Your Dog

Consider teaching your dog to NOT urinate on every possible inch of the lawn. Even if it favours just one single patch, this saves you a great deal of maintenance, and you may even only have to prepare the watering can for one single area that your dog favours the most. Unfortunately it’s in their nature to feel the need to mark their territory in as many places as they can – a potentially problematic trait when it comes to toilet training your dog more precisely.

1. 3.       Staying Hydrated

Perhaps the simplest form of prevention is minimising the concentration of urea in your dog’s urine, and this is done by ensuring it has constant access to fresh water. This can in fact prevent discolouration altogether, especially if your dog is an especially thirsty pup, an ideal alternative to the watering can or hose.

Whether we like it or not, dogs naturally want to leave little reminders of themselves in all areas of our garden, and although it is of course better than the house, it can cause a significant amount of damage to your turf and topsoil and should therefore be prevented if possible.

This article was written by Sarah MacLeod on behalf of Rolawn, the leading supplier of turf and topsoil for the perfect lawn.

Photo Credit: FatMandy

This article was written by Sarah MacLeod on behalf of Rolawn, one of the UK’s leading providers in turf and topsoil, offering their expertise to transform your garden.