How to Fix Dog Urine Spots on Lawn

Last Updated on October 31, 2021 by Phil

Don’t you just hate it when a dog relieves themselves in your front yard? Whether it’s your own pet or from one of the neighbors, you do need to deal with the after effects of it. This helps prevent those ugly brown or bald patches in your grass. Here’s how to fix dog urine spots on your lawn.

The list below shows you different things you can do to prevent your yard from becoming uneven and filled with blank areas where green, lush grass used to be.

Depending on who the culprit is, you may be able to take action either in preventing it from happening again or fixing the bald spots in your lawn or garden.

Keep Dogs and Other Animals Off Your Lawn

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. And the same is true for your dog urine and your lawn.

Lawns can be hard to repair depending on the kind of damage. The problem with dog urine is that they often won’t be just on one spot. If they’re spread out across your lawn, that forces you to make drastic fixes.

So, the best way to fix dog urine marks and brown spots on your lawn it to prevent them from happening in the first place. This means keeping the dogs away from the area.

One of the simplest, and cheapest ways to do this is using vinegar. Mixing vinegar with water gives you solution that repels dogs, cats, ants, snails and other animals.

It is easy to do because everyone has white vinegar in their kitchen. So you can mix them in a spray bottle or just a container and drizzle the perimeter of your lawn with it.

Another option is to make a fence. This is a bit costlier and will require a bit more work on your part if you decide to go the DIY route. Fences are effective unless the dog is big and can jump over them.

Finally, you can also install motion activated sprinklers. This is a great way to keep unwanted animals away because it has a motion sensor that detects them as they reach your lawn. Once they get near enough, the water sprays which keeps them away.

Spray with Water to Dilute the Urine

This is a quick fix. It is simple and easy to do. But, it isn’t always practical because you need to be able to do it right soon after the animal urinates.

All you have to do is hose down the area where the animal urinated. You can use the garden hose or just a small container.

The goal is to dilute the urine so that it isn’t as potent. The main reassure animal urine produces brown or bald spots in your lawn is that it contains nitrogen. This is the same nitrogen in fertilizer that helps grass and plants grow.

However, the if you use the right amount of fertilizer, frequent dog urination will result in too much nitrogen which is toxic to the grass. This prevents them from growing and makes those areas susceptible to browning or bald spots.

So, by diluting the pee, you reduce the potency of the nitrogen to lessen the risk of damaging your grass.

Reduce the Amount of Fertilizer You Use in the Areas Where Dogs Pee

Another way to reduce the effects of too much nitrogen is to reduce the amount of fertilizer you use in certain spots of your garden. This can be a solution if the brown spots don’t get too bad.

So, if you’re not able to catch the dog or prevent it from peeing in your lawn regularly, reducing the amount of fertilizer on the spots that they do their business prevents too much nitrogen from accumulating in the area.

It’s worth noting that male and female dog peeing patterns can differ. Male dogs will pee in small amounts as they go. So, they’re actually less of a risk for causing damage to your garden.

Female dogs on the other hand are more likely to deposit more pee in a single area. This increases the concentration of the nitrogen making it potent enough to damage the grass.

Let Your Dog Drink More Water

If you own the dog that’s doing the damage, then there are a few things you can do to make their urine more potent. The simplest of these is to make them drink more water.

More fluids in their system means that their urine concentration is more diluted. This also reduces the acidity and nitrogen levels in their pee.

When this happens, their pee won’t be as potent so it won’t be as likely to damage your lawn.

Train Your Dog Not to Urinate on the Lawn

If that’s not enough, then you may want to train your pet to stop peeing in the garden. This isn’t always the easiest thing in the world because animals instinctively leave a mark to help them trace their way back in case they go far.

So, they may do this because they know their out of the house and want to make sure that they can find their way back home.

However, you can reduce this by always taking them out to play in the lawn and garden. Once they realize that the garden is a place where they play in or spend a lot of time in, they won’t pee in it.

It’s the same reason you never see them pee in their bed or play spots. They always do their business somewhere else.

Feed Your Dog Food with the Right Pet Formulation

One last way to help reduce the potency of their waste product is to feed them the right formulation. The right kind of pet food helps them be healthier. High quality dog food is made from better, purer ingredients. And, it has balanced pH.