OK so it seems spring is finally here in Minnesota. With the snow gone the grass is really yellow and Roman (my 100+lb. american bulldog) STRONG urine is easy to blame, and yup that is the problem.
Does any know:
1. What can be used on the lawn to assist in the grass regrowing?
A. My thought was perhaps lime because it is a base the and urine is so acidic? I am not sure if my thought process is flawed.
2. Is there anything that will help the urine not kill the lawn so severely?
Thanks
I had the same problem last year, I ended up putting new sod in. This winter i put a tarp down right before it snowed. Then about a week ago I rinsed it off and removed it. Green grass 
In the past I have used pills that are supposed to prevent the yellow spots but for my dog it didn’t work.
Got to love your dogs, good luck 
Teach him to pee in the neighbors yard??? 
Apply Lime or Gypsum. It is inexpensive and can be applied at a heavy rate. You can get it at the big box stores.
Also, it is still a little early for the lawn to green up with the soil temps still cool.
cut out th edead spots. If you give your dog tomato juice it wont kill the grass. gypsum lime helps but it isn’t a solve all. I make alot of money repairing lawns from our best friends. It seems like I do it every year at a few homes.
I feel your pain. As a Great Dane owner, I know how much pee a big dog puts out. Some people say lime/gypsum. I don’t think it makes a lick of difference. Pee spots are much like if you dumped fertilizer in a spot. The fringes will be nice and green, but the spot is burned (excess nitrogen, I think).
Best thing I have found is to designate one spot as the “pee spot”. Then, it limits the damage. This can be tricky (at one point, Floyd absolutely refused to pee there and held it until we went on walks), but it’s what we’ve done. Also, it helps to water the area down after they pee–it dilutes the urine.
Here’s a great article on the topic.
Lawn Spots
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If you give your dog tomato juice it wont kill the grass.
That’s BS. They might drink more water, which will dilute the urine more and might help the problem a little bit, but it won’t stop urine spots.
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Apply Lime or Gypsum. It is inexpensive and can be applied at a heavy rate. You can get it at the big box stores.
Also, it is still a little early for the lawn to green up with the soil temps still cool.
It ain’t the pH – can be 6.0 – 8.0, neither of which is strong enough to kill grass. – It’s the urea (nitrogen)in the urine. Best solution we found was to build an area with wood chips and trained her to go there…. worked well. I’d sure check with your vet before messing with tomato juice or baking soda…… dog needs to get rid of the stuff to be healthy.
Pete
We deal with it every year, we dig the spots out, (limited area thanks to dog chains) taking the grass and some soil with it, new soil, new sod, and water like heck.
In summer the biggest key is to water like heck, they say within 8 hours of you dog peeing. The old adage that we’ve now figure out to be inaccurate (for most instances)… “The Solution to Pollution is Dilution”
Sorry guys been down the road, it’s a case of over fertilization there is no easy fix, nor way to stop it from happening (in winter anyways)
Correct me if i’m wrong….isn’t this only a female dog problem? I just noticed brown spots in my lawn in one area where my buddis female lab went for the week I was dogsitting last month. I don’t have any trouble with my male lab.
My father-in-law has two female springers, and he spends a week every spring digging up the spots and reseeding them.
Certainly more of a problem with the girls, but boys over time will still do the same damage.
Where ever “Bambi” goes nothing grows! 
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If you give your dog tomato juice it wont kill the grass.
That’s BS. They might drink more water, which will dilute the urine more and might help the problem a little bit, but it won’t stop urine spots.
I disagree, Ralph. My female lab made a dead spot every time she peed. I started using the tomato juice trick – gave her a couple ounces every day. The dead spots stopped showing up right away. We did have greener and lusher spots where she peed, but it was better than dead yellow spots. The tomato juice definately did somehting.
Tim
Post deleted by Ralph Wiggum
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Correct me if i’m wrong….isn’t this only a female dog problem?
The reason it is usually more of a problem with females is that females tend to squat low and empty their entire bladders in one spot. Many males pee smaller amounts in many areas and lift their leg to pee on things as opposed to peeing on the grass.
I’ve got a 150 lb male Great Dane that squats–believe me when I say males dogs can kill grass in no time.
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The tomato juice definately did somehting.
Yeah, it made her consume more water/liquid, which diluted her urine.
The fact of the matter is that there is excess nitrogen in dog urine that kills the grass. The dog needs to get rid of this. Giving a supplement won’t keep a dog from excreting nitrogen (and if it does, it surely won’t be good for the dog). The way to deal with it is containment or dilution.
Also, depending upon what you read, tomatoes are toxic for dogs.
That could be. I never noticed an increase in water consumption, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
Tim
We’ve already begun applying Gypsum and Lime to the existing brown spots. Takes some time but the grass will come back…no worries.
Going forward, when you see that greener clump of grass, be sure to apply gypsum to that spot and water…your dog pee’d there and it will burn if you do not apply the gypsum and water it in. The gypsum will help neutralize the nitrogen and the water will soak the gypsum in and help dilute. In extreme cases, you may need to replace the sod/dirt.
The exceptionally deep snow this year has helped reduce the brown spots compared to last spring in our lawn.
Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but gypsum is used to 1)loosen heavy, clay soils and 2) raise the pH of the soil. It won’t “neutralize” nitrogen.
Do whatever you think works, but the link I posted above is all you need to know.
I water the area of the yard where my dog does his business quite a bit. Rake out the dead grass from time to time and throw down grass seed on a regular basis. Seems like you get one area looking good and another area needs work. Constant battle but worth it!!
Always looking for new members to the Dog House:
http://www.idofishing.com/groups/
-J.
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