I was hoping someone could help me or direct me where to go to help me with my issue. I own three dogs (2 GSD, 1 Dobe), I live in Central Florida and we have had next to no rain lately. My grass in my yard is mostly dead, and I'm having trouble with the urine smell from the dogs taking over my back yard. The humidity level has been very high as well. I have never noticed it like this before, and I am guessing it is due to lack of rain (even with once a week watering). Does anyone have any suggestions on what could possibly be done to help with this issue, or could you tell me where to look?
Laura

You can try aerating the soil to break it up so that its not saturated and the sun can dry it out but it will probably come back if you let them continue to go there. Watering right now is probably making it worse. You should have an area set up as a potty area for them with pea gravel 3-6 inches deep.

You can start with a preventative measure. What do you feed the dogs? Often food directly impacts the smell of what comes out the other end. I feed a raw diet to most of my animals, which really helps the smell compared to kibbles, but I give Yucca Schidigera powder to all the critters in the house. You can find a great Yucca product at Solid Gold or by doing a google search. Just watch out that if you are giving the product to different animals/species you check all the ingredients for their safety. I give a 100% pure yucca made for horses so that all my animals can have it.

Yucca also has other beneficial properties like it is a natural anti-inflamatory and helps joint problems. Yucca works to neutralize the ammonia in the dog's system thus reducing the detectable odor and ammonia content of their urine and feces.

Trust me, it works. I have 6 cats in the house right now (rescued babies not ready to go yet and an adult cat) and 3 ferrets, and 2 dogs in the home. I use horsefeed and rabbit pellets(food) as litter and with the yucca for my cats and ferrets (the babies don't get raw, nor do the ferrets) and there is NO smell in my home. I scoop all boxes once a day so I'm not manic about it, and I don't need any litter additives or scented things. The dogs also have drastically reduced gas-smell.

Edited by Jennifer Marshal (06/11/2008 03:37 PM)
Edit reason: spelling

I have heard that this formula works really good to get rid of the urine smell. I myself haven't yet tried it though:



YARD DEODORIZER

2 c. Listerine original formula

2 oz green Palmolive liquid dish soap

Put in a pump sprayer, add hot water to make 2 gallons.
Spray the yard and deck with plain water from the hose very lightly. Then pump up the sprayer and cover the yard.
Repeat as needed and enjoy your yard.

Or alternately put the listerine and palmolive in a hose end sprayer, and set it for 2 gallons, spray away.

Besides the quality of the food, I'd keep an eye on the strength of the urine. This may be one of the dogs, and it may be strong (not enough fluid) urine or a UTI.

Your comment about never having noticed it before makes me think of one of the dogs having a change to his urine.

I'd probably start catching the first one of the day, one by one. Then if one of them looked dark yellow or orange and/or smelled different from the others, I'd drop it off at the vet's.

Thank you very much for all of your replies. As for the food they eat California Natural dry kibble, but that is not a new thing, so I don't think that is the whole problem. Thank you for your tips, I will try them. Also any other advice will help.
Laura