What to do about dog urine spots in your lawn

One of the best things about having a beautiful lawn is sharing it with your canine companion, so keeping up with the damage caused by dog urine is important.  Dog urine spots are a result of a high concentration of nitrogen and related salts.  It’s like putting too much fertilizer in a small spot of your lawn.

You could water the specific area with a hose or watering can to dilute the concentration but who has the time for this task?  There are many supplements you could feed your dog to change the urine Ph, but I think it is better to treat the lawn rather than the pet.

I suggest an easy method that I learned managing golf courses.  We mixed up sand, peat moss and seed to fill divots in the fairways and teeing ground. This mix works great because sand can easily be leveled to fill the void and the peat moss helps to retain moisture for seed germination.  In this situation it is not necessary to add fertilizer because of the concentrated nitrogen in this area.  Mix up a 5-gallon bucket and use it to refill your sand and seed bottle.  Fill the brown spots with the mix from your sand and seed bottle every week or two.  If you have an area with many dead spots, first use a leaf rake to scratch up the dead layer and prepare a good seed bed.  Then just broadcast your mix over the entire area.

Here is the mix:

-5parts sand (coarse) (all purpose)

-1part peat moss

-1part seed (3-way Perennial ryegrass) (about 2 lbs. per 5 gal. bucket)