somerville dog: a weblog

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.