Repairing Dog Damage on Your Lawn | Greenstreet Gardens (2024)

• Garden Advice, In the Dirt

We love our pets, but after a winter of using the lawn as a commode, our grass can use a little love. Patches from digging and urination spots are just a few imperfections we have to repair. Fortunately, there are easy fixes to get our lawns looking lush for summer.

The Cause of Dog Urine Patches

One of the freedoms of being a dog is the ability to urinate in the great outdoors. Unfortunately, our yard is often the most convenient spot. There is nothing wrong with dog pee per se; in fact, urine is one of nature’s great fertilizers! The issue is when it occurs in high concentrations. Just like over-fertilizing, the nitrogen compounds in the urine can burn the grass and leave it dry and brown.

How to Prevent Urine Patches

Wouldn’t it be nice to direct your dog to fertilize your lawn evenly? It sounds ideal, but your pooch is not likely to cooperate. You can, however, designate a sacrifice area and train him to do his business there. If that’s not possible, you may have to accept the burned patches and repair them as needed.

*Side Note: Female dogs have a reputation as the main culprit of burn patches, but it’s only because the way they squat causes a more concentrated emission.

How to Repair Urine Burns

1. The first step is to water those brown spots profusely; this will flush the urine salts out of the area. While it’s a good first step, it may not be enough to clear away the excess compounds and allow your grass to return.
2. To speed up the recovery, you can rake away all of the dead grass, add topsoil over the patch, and seed it with fresh grass seed.
3. If you want the new grass to sprout, remember to water it daily until you see fresh blades coming up. Continue watering regularly until the new grass is established.

Other Dog Damage

Another great joy of being a dog is digging. Not all dogs will dig up your lawn, but some, especially puppies, like to sink their paws into the earth looking for moles, mice, or simply for fun. You can try to train them not to dig or give them a small area of your yard where they can let loose. Still, if you have a rambunctious dog, you may end up with a couple of holes in your yard. Fortunately, repairing them is almost as simple as fixing a burned spot.

How to Repair Holes

1. The first and hardest step is to keep your dog off the area while under repair. We’ll leave it up to you, whether that means fencing the area off or training your canine to stay away.
2. Once you’ve cleared the area, lay topsoil into the hole. Tamp it down gently with your foot and fill it until the ground is even with the lawn around it.
3. Sprinkle fresh grass seed into the topsoil.
4. Water the seeds in, and continue to water them twice daily until they sprout, at which point you can reduce the frequency of watering. Remember to wait until the fresh grass is several inches high before mowing it.

Alternative Technique: Fresh Sod

If you have several areas of dog damage, it may be worth your while to buy a fresh piece of sod to repair the damage. Here are a few tips to remember when laying a piece of sod:

• Cut the piece of sod, so it fits into the damaged area.
• Make sure the sod is level with the lawn around it by laying topsoil into the hole or digging down.
• Make sure the bottom side of the sod touches the soil beneath it.
• Fill in any cracks around the sod with topsoil.
• Remember to water your sod twice daily for two weeks for a successful installation.

Having a dog often means dealing with some lawn damage, but even after you let the dogs out, you can still enjoy a lush lawn. Flushing urine salts, reseeding, and resodding are three simple ways to keep your lawn in top shape after winter and throughout the year!

For all of the lawn care supplies you need, feel free to visit our garden centers in Lothian and Alexandria!

At Greenstreet Gardens, we take pride in the fact that our number one goal is to make our customers successful.

Equipped with a diverse wealth of information and a knowledgeable staff, we are confident that we are able to provide all of the right tools and plant material necessary to help make your gardening ideas become reality.