My dog is a boy. But, unfortunately, he was never around other boy dogs, and never learned to lift his leg.

His urine must be ultra-toxic, because he pees on the grass once, and within a day or 2 there is already a 6-inch-wide yellow circle of dead grass.

My wife and I, and the dog, are temporarily living with my parents. They and their neighbors are all very concerned with the appearance of their lawns and gardens. I've done my best to take my guy all the way down away from everyone's houses and keep him out of the way, but there have been a handful of times when he's just gotten onto the grass and started going before I could stop him. My fault, and mostly I just need to do a better job keeping him next to me on the sidewalk until we're out of the way.

But, I still want to know--is it normal for this stuff to be THAT poisonous, THAT fast? 24 hours after, there's the big tumor of dark green grass growing up super fast (from the nitrogen?), and another 24 hours later there's a really big yellow spot. Seems unusually bad.

Also, is there any solution? He eats Taste of the Wild--maybe it's the food brand? I've seen these tabs you can feed them that supposedly make the pee less toxic--do those work at all?

Thanks for any pointers folks. Sorry for the unpleasant subject matter of the question.

 Quote: Chris Waple

My dog is a boy. But, unfortunately, he was never around other boy dogs, and never learned to lift his leg.

His urine must be ultra-toxic, because he pees on the grass once, and within a day or 2 there is already a 6-inch-wide yellow circle of dead grass.

My wife and I, and the dog, are temporarily living with my parents. They and their neighbors are all very concerned with the appearance of their lawns and gardens. I've done my best to take my guy all the way down away from everyone's houses and keep him out of the way, but there have been a handful of times when he's just gotten onto the grass and started going before I could stop him. My fault, and mostly I just need to do a better job keeping him next to me on the sidewalk until we're out of the way.

But, I still want to know--is it normal for this stuff to be THAT poisonous, THAT fast? 24 hours after, there's the big tumor of dark green grass growing up super fast (from the nitrogen?), and another 24 hours later there's a really big yellow spot. Seems unusually bad.

Also, is there any solution? He eats Taste of the Wild--maybe it's the food brand? I've seen these tabs you can feed them that supposedly make the pee less toxic--do those work at all?

Thanks for any pointers folks. Sorry for the unpleasant subject matter of the question.

Is he a big dog?

All JMO:

I think it's pretty normal for a big dog going from a squat to damage green grass's appearance pretty fast. (If he lifted his leg, he might damage plants instead.)

It's possible that he also needs more hydration to de-concentrate his urine (and this is something to strive for, anyway, regardless of grass; concentrated urine is undesirable for the health of the entire urinary tract, including kidneys and bladder). Again, JMO.

People sometimes guess that it's the pH of dog pee, but actually, I'm in your camp; I'm pretty convinced (after reading up, some time back) that it's the nitrate called urea. (A bit of nitrates can be good, of course .... witness the various grass fertilizers .... but a big solid spot of it all at once, not so much.)


You can always throw a pail of water on the spot right away if you're at home (or near home).

When not at home, I'd probably not allow the dog onto the lawns during the walks, period. I'd probably also march along pretty briskly, stopping to give the dog the length of the leash for peeing, sniffing, etc. This would be at your discretion, in appropriate stress-free areas.

I'm not a fan of the various additives to the dog's food or water; if they are meant to change the pH, I don't want to give them AND they don't address the problem. Do you have a link to the tabs?

P.S.

"Sorry for the unpleasant subject matter of the question."


Yeah, heaven knows that we never discuss dog pee or dog poop here!

Sounds like Connie answered most of your question so I won't repeat what she said. However, I will offer something else to consider.

You may want to consider more control over when and where your dog relieves himself. Our dog has one designated area for her to do her business, our back yard. When we take walks, it's my walk, not hers. It's also not her opportunity to sniff and explore things on other peoples property or yards. Also, we walk on the sidewalk or on the street and I keep her beside me the entire time. The walk is for her to get exercise, not to do her business. Every so often, I'll pause and let her sniff around a mailbox or a vehicle but I don't give her the chance to pee or mark territory. I just think it's very discourteous for people to allow their dogs up into my yard to relieve themselves so I don't do it to them.

Guess I'm just feeling grouchy today. Sorry. This is just sort of a pet peeve of mine for the very reasons you cited.

Thanks for the replies.

When we were at our last house, he did have a designated area. However, we sold our place and we're temporarily with someone else. There isn't a really good place to take him except for aaaaall the way down the block behind some trees. I get him there most of the time, but he's gotten away from me a couple times.

He's a big boy, 80lb GSD. I think the best solution is what Connie said--just keep him on a tight leash until we're somewhere that it's appropriate to do his business.

Water on the spot will prevent urine browning , will dilute down the nitrogen. But you've got to do it right away.

Also, generally having a well watered lawn will help. I have almost no pee spots on my lawn here in Minnesota where it's always raining or snowing.

However, my shrubs, egads. WHOLE lotta brown streaks, in fact I think the boxwoods may have had it......

I have a corner house = a very small back yard + a concrete patio that takes up half the area + two intact male GSDs = no grass at all and flower beds are fenced off.

I will agree with Connie and Betty. Pee has a high nitrogen content. IF you can hose it down right away it will help.

Is your dog neutered? If so he may never lift his leg but as Connie mentioned Female dogs kill grass and Male dogs kill bushes.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

P.S.

"Sorry for the unpleasant subject matter of the question."


Yeah, heaven knows that we never discuss dog pee or dog poop here!

I thought that was funny... especially since I realized a large percentage of my own questions here have been dog pee/poop related.

 Quote: Lee_Reicheld

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

P.S.

"Sorry for the unpleasant subject matter of the question."


Yeah, heaven knows that we never discuss dog pee or dog poop here!

I thought that was funny... especially since I realized a large percentage of my own questions here have been dog pee/poop related.

- snort -

The only thing we're missing is smell-o-vision!



But seriously (kinda) ..... a whole lot of immediate help posts rely on descriptions (and photos) of dog poop and pee.

We've got close to acre that our dogs are contained in and I just love their strategically aimed shots. We're not big on the whole fancy lawn thing but it grows nicely anyway. Especially in the spring when it's got to be mowed twice a week.

Weed wacking is a big part of that too, however.... noticing some brown spots on the yard (not caring about them, mind you) gave me an idea to get the boys to kill the areas that were more difficult to get at with the mower.

They were automatically keeping the corners of the sheds from growing grass (love this) and were starting to pee on (instead of play with) a couple of logs of wood we put in the yard as play toys.

Now, anytime there's an area I don't want grass to grow, I put the logs (note: handled with gloves) in the area and magically, the grass/weed problem disappears.

Is there an area on your parent's lawn that they don't want grass or don't like to mow? Maybe you could set something up and teach your boy to go there.