PET STUDIO WITH DR CHRIS BROWN PATCHY PROBLEM For many people, they’re the two great loves of their life their pet and their lawn. But unfortunately, the two rarely find a way to coexist together. So if you’re feeling blue because your lawn isn’t as green as it should be, never fear, because we’ve got the tips to help you fix those lawn blemishes. FAST FACTS • It’s actually an overdose of nutrients that causes the burn in your lawn. In smaller doses, the nitrogen in dog and cat urine can act as a fertilizer. In fact, after the burn, the grass often comes back even stronger than before, which is why you’ll often see rings of thick dark green grass around yellow patches in the lawn. • Female dogs and cats are more likely to cause grass burn. While their wee is almost identical, the way our male dogs go to the toilet is very different to females. The boys prefer to cock their leg (or in the case of cats, spray) against something vertical like a tree or a fence; saving your grass.
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PET STUDIO WITH DR CHRIS BROWN
PATCHY PROBLEM For many people, they’re the two great loves of their life -‐ their pet and their lawn. But unfortunately, the two rarely find a way to co-‐exist together. So if you’re feeling blue because your lawn isn’t as green as it should be, never fear, because we’ve got the tips to help you fix those lawn blemishes.
FAST FACTS
• It’s actually an overdose of nutrients that causes the burn in your lawn. In smaller doses, the nitrogen in dog and cat urine can act as a fertilizer. In fact, after the burn, the grass often comes back even stronger than before, which is why you’ll often see rings of thick dark green grass around yellow patches in the lawn.
• Female dogs and cats are more likely to cause grass burn. While their wee is almost identical, the way our male dogs go to the toilet is very different to females. The boys prefer to cock their leg (or in the case of cats, spray) against something vertical like a tree or a fence; saving your grass.
• Larger dogs will pee more and therefore create more damage. • Diets high in protein can increase nitrogen concentration in the urine since protein
breaks down to release nitrogen compounds* • PET bottles filled with water were hailed as the perfect fix to lawn problems. But do
they really work? Well, the answer is a definite no. Not only are they incredibly unsightly, they also fail to be a deterrent to pets doing their ‘business’. Pets are more influenced by scent than by sight so it’s more about how the lawn smells than how it looks. And if anything, putting something on the lawn that a male dog can now wee against probably makes the lawn even more of a target. To top it all off, the bottles often leave a burn mark of their own by squashing the grass and blocking the light and oxygen reaching the lawn.
For a moment, forget about the lawn. If you can encourage your pet to drink more water this will help dilute their urine. Less nitrogen in the wee lowers the risk of your grass getting burnt. You can either put more water bowls out or serve up some tinned food to go with their dry food. Because this can be up to 80% water, it’s a stress free way of boosting that water intake.
Water Your grass
Water your grass. Even if your pet slips through your defenses, you can still limit the lawn damage by diluting out the nutrients your pet has just deposited. Putting a sprinkler on for a few minutes a night or hosing the hotspots should save the day.
Rock On
Putting a few special rocks (“Dog Rocks”*; available from vets) into your dog’s water bowl might seem like a bizarre fix but funnily enough most people swear it works. These are supposed to change the pH of your dog’s urine and make it less toxic to the grass. They filter out impurities from water such as tin, ammonia and nitrates.
*http://dogrocks.org/
SALVAGE YOUR LAWN Toughen Up
Use hardier grass species such as Palmetto buffalo or Sir Walter Buffalo – it’s a more sturdy grass.
Time to Trim
Cut out the dead lawn, replace with ready lawn patches of grass. You can also replace the damaged section of lawn with lawn seed, i.e. scratch back dead lawn, water thoroughly, add soil, add lawn seed then add soil and water.