Do you have unsightly brown spots of dead grass marring the beauty of your lawn? The culprit may be your furry canine friend.

Dog urine can have a damaging impact on your green grass. The ugly lawn burn spots are caused by the high nitrogen content found in dog urine. Every time the dog urinates on the grass, he or she adds a large dose of nitrogen to the soil. This is equal to pouring liquid fertilizer on the yard. When minor quantities of fertilizer could be useful, large quantities of urine can lead to nitrogen burns.

If you use fertilizer for your lawn, the grass is already receiving required levels of nitrogen. Add dog urine and you have the perfect situation for lawn burn. While lawn burn is unpleasant, it does not indicate that your dog has a medical problem. Lawn burn from canine urination is common.

It has been said that female dogs contribute more to lawn burn than do male dogs. This may be true, but it is not on account of physical differences. Females squat to urinate, hence saturating more soil area. Males tend to lift their leg and pass urine on things to mark their territory. Thus, male dogs often spread their urine around the yard.

Large breed dogs produce more urine as they drink a great deal more than small breeds. Consequently, they release more concentrated nitrogen onto the yard.

It is thought that pet dogs that eat a high protein diet cause more lawn burn. The cause for this is that superior levels of protein cause the body to expel more nitrogen. There are drugs and food supplements that can help minimize nitrogen levels in your dogs urine, but there could be bad side effects. Discuss the situation with your dogs veterinarian.

One among the easiest things to do to reduce lawn burn is to rinse the urine off of the grass. Keep a pipe or bucket of water handy. If you clean the area in which the dog urinated within a couple of hours, the chances are good that lawn damage will be prevented as the water dilutes the nitrogen. The diluted nitrogen actually works as lawn fertilizer.

If you have a large lawn where water is not easily available, try training the dog to urinate in a specific area where you can perform a rinse down or put up with the consequence of nitrogen burn. Choose a spot that is not as noticeable as the center of your yard.
An additional alternative is to designate a potty area and make use of stone or gravel instead of grass. Some folks have successfully used concrete blocks in the place of grass.

If you already have spots of nitrogen burn, you can try re-seeding the grass. It is very important to water the area well prior to and after re-seeding.

The grass killed by nitrogen burns will sometimes come back on its own once no additional urine is added to the ground. This does take some time and there is no assurance that it will work out.