Wee and Grass

[huckle & boo]

Is it just the girls wee that makes the lovely brown patches on the lawn ? and has anybody tried dog rocks ?

[JaneH]

Hello,
I asked this question a little while ago....I've seen the dog rocks and there's no way Alfie would leave them in his water bowl for longer than 30 seconds (on a good day!!).
This morning I had someone from Greenthumb come and look at our lawn and they say that the patches are caused by 'overfertilization' from the nitrates in the wee (which is why its greener round the edges of the patches where it only gets a sprinkle!).
They say with feed and weed treatment the patches will recover...we're going to try this (with a sprinkling of grass seed) .
I must say, I thought the patches were permanently dead, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Jane

[huckle & boo]

Hi thanks for your reply, I get those patches where the grass grows more round the outside, I have always thought that the boys make those and the girls wee leaves just a brown dead patch but as we've always had both sexes I am not sure if this correct. The bad news is that we also used Greenthumb till about 6mths ago and I did not see any improvement but I guess if your dog keeps weeing on the grass it is just a vicious circle . I also know what you mean about the dog rocks staying in the bowl !!!! though I think my girlie would leave them there, so maybe I will try them just in ner bowl and see what happens !!

[smile]

Hi,

I have just been and bought some dog rocks today, have just put them into Betty's bowl and she seems to be drinking normally at the minute and has not really noticed them, you do need to put alot of water with them, so in order for the dog to take the rocks out they would need to put their whole head into the water bowl! We too used green thumb and did not feel we saw enough of an improvement to continue as it is not cheap and that was before we had a dog so I def do not feel it would be worth it now, anyway I would be too embarassed!!
We have tried to seed some areas but betty just digs at the lovely new soil and there are too many patches to section it off!

Hopefully we will be saying goodbye to brown patches soon!!!

Fi

[fee0305]

My neighbours son has 2 labs and eventally gave up and tried fake grass, he said it's great he just lifts any mess an hoses it down. Apparently there are dog appropriate types.
We are seriously considerin this because I feel the kids will be missing outon the garden this summer.

I have to say I haven't seen it myself but it does sound too good to be true.
Anyone else any experience?

[annabanana]

Hi there,

I too have had wee patches on my grass but think I have solved the problem accidently. Last weekend my OH took up our slabbed path and put down a load of gravel (very cheap) just because it looks better but as an added bonus we have noticed that Willow is choosing to wee on the gravel instead of the grass. I am wondering whether a small patch (2m metre squared) would solve your problems! Just a thought!

[lizzie tb]

Hi, I have boy dogs and I had brown patches too on my lawn, Toby has now stopped weeing on the same area and it's recovered well and is lovely and green again, so there is light at the end of the tunnel!
I agree with the gravel though, my two seem to prefer weeing on gravel especially Bertie, I have no idea why.

[Josi]

A little tip I was told years ago is to add pineapple to the dogs food - it will help neutralise the chemical that turns your grass yellow. Hope that helps

[iwantadog]

We also use Dog Rocks and have done for about 6 months now. They don't seem to work 100% but we certainly don't have too many brown patches on our lawn.

Murphy is a monkey for nicking things and taking them outside, and he has never, ever done this with the Dog Rocks, I have no idea why! They are not cheap at £14 for a 3 month supply, but do seem to work enough to keep our lawn looking ok.

Wendy x