A caller to Speak Out in The Somerville Journal last week raised the issue of dog urine damaging grass, and a member has also raised this concern on the Somerville Dogs Bulletin Board.
Urine (of all carnivores) has a high nitrogen content, which temporarily burns grass. That same nitrogen is, in fact, a fertilizer that promotes grass growth. If, immediately afterwards, you pour water over the spot where your dog has urinated, you can dilute the nitrogen content, minimizing the burning potential and maximixing the fertilizing potential of the urine ("'Dog-On-It' Lawn Problems").
Strummer has a "litter box," about four feet by four feet square filled with gravel, so there are no urine burns in the grass in our yard. Our yard is not fenced-in, and my guess is that the reason that we don't have urine burns from our neighbors' dogs in our front yard is either that their owners are responsible and don't allow their dogs to urinate in our grass; or that the dogs don't urinate in the same place all the time, and we've had enough rain this year to dilute what urine has been left in our grass.
Posted by Canis Major at August 6, 2004 11:42 AM in the following categories: Canine Good Citizenship , Shooting the S--twhy does the urine burn the grass??
Posted by: david at January 31, 2005 8:23 AMThanks for posting the comment.
Dog urine, like the urine of all carnivores, is high in nitrogen. According to Scotts (the lawn care and gardening company),
once the grass is given a quick shot of highly-concentrated nitrogen . . . , the grass responds by "giving water back to the soil" because it senses a problem in the soil balance.Posted by: Canis Major at January 31, 2005 12:16 PM"It is a law of nature called reverse osmosis, and that is what causes the burning of the lawn," [Ron] Boylan [Manager of Scotts Training Institute] said. "The grass doesn't actually burn, it dries-up because it is giving-up moisture." Osmosis is the process by which plant roots take in moisture, and osmotic balance is essential to a healthy lawn.