[francesjl]

I used to have a green lawn... now its a big muddy mess with tufts of grass in patches. It looks horrible and the slightest bit of rain means lots of muddy paw prints. We also have a rabbit that used to enjoy munching the grass, now he's lucky if he can find some !
Wondered if anyone has a miracle solution - apart from artificial grass, or gravel or bark, I do like a bit of greenery !

 

[caroleb]

Have you tried dog rocks? http://www.dogrocks.co.uk/
You can get them at pets at home - not tried them
myself but my friend uses them (although her dog likes to take them out of her water bowl and walk around with them in her mouth!)

 

[Rufini]

Our garden is SO going to get a mini make over as soon as spring fully arrives.... Vincent is in a digging phase :/

 

[Salfordnurse]

I think Jml do a patch repair, which is specially made for pet urine patches on lawns. I'm guessing it's 100% animal friendly but not sure. Another thing to try is to dowse the area that they have urinated on with about 1\2 to 1 litre (1-2 pints) of water, to dilute the urine.
The reasoning behind this is:-
Dog urine contains high levels of nitrogen, which is what causes the grass to go brown. You should also notice around the edges of these brown patches that the grass is actually quite green and probably thicker than the rest of your lawn. The reason being that if you think about it the urine will be more concentrated in the centre and less concentrated out at the edges as the pool/puddle spreads out. This weaker amount will have a lower concentration of nitrogen.
Right so if your still with me after that garbled amount of typing. Nitrogen is one of the main ingredients, albeit in low concentrations, in lawn fertiliser. Therefore adding a large amount of water over the area should dilute the urine and along with it the concentration of nitrogen, which should be low enough to act as a fertiliser.

Simon and Poppy

 

[MillieDog]

Brilliant science lesson Simon. I did wonder why the grass grew more lush around the edges.

 

[tessybear]

My back garden looks dreadful! Lots of little brown circles in my lush green grass!

 

[francesjl]

My brown circles grew !!! Now its spot the grass !

 

[Dexter1011]

I have had the dog rocks since the summer, they seemed to work first of all when Dexter was tiny but now he is big I have the brown patches. I did wonder if it was because he drank the water straight when I filled the bowl up and maybe the rock has to be in the water awhile for it to work.

 

[Eddie]

When Eddie was very young [and I almost lived in the garden trying to toilet train him] I always watered the place on the grass where he did a wee and this seemed to keep the brown patches at bay.I thought when he matured he would start cocking his leg ,but he only does it up posts etc when we are out and the lawn has suffered badly with nasty dead brown bits because he seems to do it in the same place.I wish I had made an effort to get him to wee somewhere other than the lawn because it just seems too much to keep watering the grass plus its so wonderful to let him into the garden without having to go out there myself all the time.My neighbours tried the rock things but said they were expensive.

 

[caroleb]

Hmm - hadn't actually looked at price but £13 for a rock is a bit steep!! It's all about the acid/alkali/mineral balance of the wee I suppose? I have also heard that mineral water works but I suppose when you are serving evian to your poo with his caviar it's ok but for us mortals maybe a tad excessive? Wonder if the Brita filters would do the same thing??

 

[janejones]

A squirt of ketchup in their food seems to work, don't ask me why, I have no idea but brown patches are a thing of the past in our garden, we just have lots of holes as Leo loves a dig! x

 

[janejones]

A squirt of ketchup in their food seems to work, don't ask me why, I have no idea but brown patches are a thing of the past in our garden, we just have lots of holes as Leo loves a dig! x

 

[janejones]

A squirt of ketchup in their food seems to work, don't ask me why, I have no idea but brown patches are a thing of the past in our garden, we just have lots of holes as Leo loves a dig! x

 

[andypandi]

A squirt of ketchup in their food seems to work, don't ask me why, I have no idea but brown patches are a thing of the past in our garden, we just have lots of holes as Leo loves a dig! x

We were discussing this last week and my mum said that adding tomato to their food is supposed to help.

 

[MillieDog]

Worth a try. I wonder if Millie will end up refusing to eat her food without a squirt of tomato sauce on it

 

[Eddie]

I'm going to put some ketchup in Eddies meal this evening,I wonder if some fresh or tinned tomato would do the trick.I hope he likes tomato sauce.

 

[francesjl]

Will try the ketchup idea !

 

[Salfordnurse]

I think the tomato is suggested because since it is acidic it will neutralise the alkaline urine, and make it's pH more neutral. Though not an exact science since urine can have a pH of anywhere between 4 and 9

Simon and Poppy

 

[Lilies]

i give ollie greenums during the summer - tablets from [email protected]

 

[francesjl]

I think the tomato is suggested because since it is acidic it will neutralise the alkaline urine, and make it's pH more neutral. Though not an exact science since urine can have a pH of anywhere between 4 and 9

Simon and Poppy

Simon, are you a secret scientist ?