Help with patchy lawn caused by dogs

ben.m.chapmanqEBFnEj- · 25 February

Hello everyone, new to this forum and to gardening. Last summer we bought a new house and our dog seems to have a preference for wee’ing in the same spot. This has caused our new lawn to look completely patchy. There are new shoots coming through, but there are areas which look completely dead.

Please see the pictures attached.

What would you recommend as the best course of action to rectify?

thanks in advance!

Ben

JennyJ · 25 February

Hi Ben, and welcome!

There's not much point in spending time and money repairing the lawn until you've tackled the source of the problem. If you can't train the dog to wee on the hard surface, the only way I know to prevent the grass being killed in patches is to follow her with a full watering can and dilute the wee straight away (or him, but I believe it's female dogs' wee that's the worst for killing grass).

Once that's sorted, you can try raking up the dead patches, scuffing up the surface of the soil and overseeding with as near a match to the type of grass as you can find.

Joyce Goldenlily · 1 March

Yes. Bitches have something in their urine which does kill grass if they regularly pee on the same patch. Tip a bucket of water over the area each time she uses it. The only other thing, apart from getting rid of the dog, is to scratch the dead grass away, and reseed the patches. It seems to get worse as the dog gets older as well. From personal experience. I now have a make dog and do not have the problem.

Dovefromabove · 1 March

If you can encourage your bitch to use just one area of the garden set aside for the purpose (perhaps with a layer of bark or similar which can be replaced regularly to avoid smells) that’ll give you a chance to restore the rest of the lawn. 😊

Help with patchy lawn caused by dogs

Posts