Brown Spots on Lawn

Female urine kills grass, but a males does not.
 
At one point, I thought this also, but its not true. Our Great Dane Oliver has burned out the grass really bad.    In fact my son lives in a condo with Ollie and just got into trouble with the association there because he has burned out the whole back yard grass where he goes...a very very large area. My son had to spend a day a couple of weeks ago, planting new grass which he will also kill out, so I'm not sure what they are going to do about that!
 
The think is...Ollie does NOT lift his leg,,,he therefore squats and pees like a female and all the urine goes in one spot just like a female dog...and of course since we are talking Great Dane here,,,we are talking MAJOR burn out!!!

2 or 3 Tablespoons of tomato juice worked for both my male and female Chessies.  Put it on their dry food.  Jazzbonita and Jake both quit burning up the yard.  Adjust it according the the size of your pup.

Sheprader, if your girl is drinking THAT much water in a day, she really needs to be checked for a UTI.  I have SIX german shepherds and I fill their 5 gallon outside container every morning and always have some water to dump when I change it.  They have their wading pool which is changed every morning as well, but they don't drink a lot from that, and then the inside water gets refilled as needed......but FIVE gallons for one dog would send up all sorts of red flags for me.
 
FWIW....all of mine, male and female can turn the grass brown.....depends primarily on the time of year with my crew.

Both male and female urine contains urea. Therefore, both have the ability to cause fertilizer burn. I do agree that males seemingly don't (for the most part) because of their method of urinating.

2 or 3 Tablespoons of tomato juice worked for both my male and female Chessies. 
 
You are so lucky!  I thought it was helping when we put tomato juice on Ollies kibble, but after about a week or so we realized it was still burning out. I wish that it would have helped, would have been easier than pouring water where they pee each time.  I don't know,,again, maybe its because the danes are so big,,and pee a lot more at a time.

I've started watering after each pee - what a pain in the neck!  But if it works, it's worth the trouble so we'll see. I'm thinking I might try the tomato juice also.  I can my own tomatoes and tomato juice so would it be okay to use that?  I have tons of jars in the basement.

I've started watering after each pee - what a pain in the neck!
 
You know, it is kind of. But I have been doing it for so long its just second nature for me,,,when I walk out with Bubby to take her out to pee,,I grab the sprinkling can that is next to the door and away we go.  I just use a small house container and keep it filled by the door that we walk out,, I used about half of it each time. But I also have a hanging plant there so use it for that also.   I've been doing this for years since Ollie (my sons Dane who used to be by my house all the time) used to come and kill all my grass. I live in a cluster home development so I don't have a lot of property to take them on,,, when they kill a few spots, it gigantic and right there for everyone to see.

ORIGINAL: pumaward
 I do agree that males seemingly don't (for the most part) because of their method of urinating.

 
I think this is true. Loki squats to pee and he burns the grass. But Odin lifts his leg most of the time so it's not as concentrated in one spot and doesn't burn the grass as much.
 
Our back yard looks awful either way, though. We'll never get rid of all those brown spots! [:'(]

Well, I've been watching this post and watching my lawn.  It seems that Wrigley pee has the perfect amount of fertilizer.  In the spots where he pees (not poops as I had suspected) our new lawn (sod not too long ago) is lush, green, and growing significantly more than non-pee areas.  How interesting!

Eskiemom--Hopefully your lawn will turn out better than ours. We had new sod put in 2 months before we got Loki last year. At first, we noticed the same thing. Wherever he peed was growing way better than the other areas! But after a few months, those spots turned brown and died. I think at first the fertilization makes the grass grow more and then it's too much and it burns it.

Well that's very disappointing news [].  This is our first house, we've always lived in an apartment.  We're learning as we go I guess.

This is just ME, but I'm not willing to give them pills to change the PH in their urine. I'm also not willing to follow them around with a water pail. I already follow them around with a baggie and gloves to pick up poop, and I don't have enough hands for a water thingie too.

So, we have brown spots from time to time in our back yard. We also have a lot of weeds because I refuse to use a weed killer and chance hurting my dogs - matter of fact I'm thrilled when the weeds come in and fill the bare spots. I suppose we'll just have to be known as the Clampetts of our neighborhood. [] The way I figure it is that I have enough to worry about... brown spots don't bother me too much. 'Course we DO have a 6' tall privacy fence, so the only ones looking at our back yard is US.

ORIGINAL: dogslyfe

This is just ME, but I'm not willing to give them pills to change the PH in their urine. I'm also not willing to follow them around with a water pail. I already follow them around with a baggie and gloves to pick up poop, and I don't have enough hands for a water thingie too.

So, we have brown spots from time to time in our back yard. We also have a lot of weeds because I refuse to use a weed killer and chance hurting my dogs - matter of fact I'm thrilled when the weeds come in and fill the bare spots. I suppose we'll just have to be known as the Clampetts of our neighborhood. [] The way I figure it is that I have enough to worry about... brown spots don't bother me too much. 'Course we DO have a 6' tall privacy fence, so the only ones looking at our back yard is US.

 
We're exactly the same way. We don't use weed killer. We don't fertilize and we rarely water, because I don't want the dogs to be wet. So our yard looks horrible! But we also have a privacy fence, so at least the neighbors can't see. We've just resigned ourselves to the fact that when we sell our house, we'll probably have to resod the backyard.
 
Eskiemom--This was our first house too. Brand new house with a brand new yard. So we're also learning. Neither of us has ever had grass before!

It seems that Wrigley pee has the perfect amount of fertilizer.  In the spots where he pees (not poops as I had suspected) our new lawn (sod not too long ago) is lush, green, and growing significantly more than non-pee areas.  How interesting!
When my son lived by us, we used to notice that around the brown spot that Ollie killed, the grass grew twice as long and green,,,and that is because there was probably just a little urine going there,,,and it acts like a fertilizer.  Fertilizer can kill out your grass if you put too much on and don't water it also.    But on my grass,, the spot just turns brown and ugle.
 
You guys are lucky if you can just leave the spots turn brown and now worry about others.... I live in a cluster home development, and really just own a tiny couple of  feet around our house,,the rest of the grass is actually association grass and I don't have the right to ruin it for the others that live here.      And as I mentioned,,,my son just got into trouble where he lives with Ollie. He lives in a town house development..has a patio with a privacy fence on the back. He ties Ollie to the back when he as to go, and Ollie had burned out almost the whole entire area behind the privacy fence. The association told him he had two weeks to dig it up and replant.   Not sure what would happen if he didn't do it though.
For us its kind of worse because we are talking Great Danes in a small area... they pee a lot and there is just a small amount of area they walk on, so when it burns out spots,,,its like the whole yard!   So its worth it to me to keep water on hand, and not make people mad along with I feel that I have no more right to ruin that grass then I do to let dog poop sitting there all week.

But on my grass,, the spot just turns brown and ugle.

 
Same here.  And it seems to take forever to grow back in in those areas.  We have a 6 foot fence around our yard, so it's only for us (and guests) that I care about how our lawn looks.  When we bought this house 5 yrs ago, we spent a bundle of money putting in a pool/spa, new decking, plants, and my DH and I actually laid the sod.  It was just too hard to do all that and then watch the grass turn to straw.  Fortunately, both dogs were already pretty well trained to use the planter areas to pee & poop.  Not saying everyone should do it, just that it can be done.