Maintaining Your Lawn When You Have a Dog
Maintaining Your Lawn When You Have a Dog
A healthy lawn will surely increase the overall curb appeal of your property. However, if you have a pet dog, you may have difficulties achieving a well-kept one. You may have difficulty keeping the grass green because of dog urine. Whenever your grass comes in contact with dog urine, it can result to yellow patches. This is because of the chemicals in dog urine. This can result to ca burned up lawn, having yellow to brown dead patches or areas. Aside from this, your dog can also be damaging your lawn in other ways such as digging up your grass or garden as well.
But don’t worry! You can still have a beautiful lawn without having to give up your pet dog. With proper upkeep methods, you can prevent these effects from happening. Below are some tips on how you can keep a lawn well-maintained if you have a pet dog:
1.Clean Up
The first thing to do in order to prevent spots or patches from appearing in your lawn is by cleaning up the areas where your dog frequently stays or where he does his business. You can do this by watering out the spots, this dilutes the contents of dog urine that are made up of nitrogen and salts. Whenever your dog plays outside, make sure that you keep an eye on him. It will be helpful to know which spots or areas are affected. You can also hose out the soiled areas as well. Addressing these spots right away will lessen the potential damage as well.
2.Proper Maintenance
To give your lawn a break, you can also keep your dog off it from time to time. This is part of proper maintenance. Also make sure that you fertilize your lawn at least thrice a year to help it grow healthy. Keep your dog away from your lawn for some time especially after you’ve just fertilized it. You can also mow your grass regularly, so that you can hide the yellow or brown patches.
3.Repair
Although regular maintenance can keep your grass healthy, you may still have to repair the damage every once in a while. You can repair the damages on your lawn by reseeding or replanting. This will be most effective during the start of the new season, such as fall or spring. However, if you find out that the area can no longer be repaired, then you should flush it with water. After that, you can then dig up the grass, get rid of it and reseed the affected area.
4. Train Your Dog
Another way to help maintain your lawn is by training your dog instead. Various types of breed will have different personalities, and they will treat your lawn according to their personality. To avoid lawn damage, you can train your dog and teach him not to dig up your lawn. Also, in order to prevent urine from damaging your grass, you can also train your dog to do his business in a certain area in your yard or home. This way, it will be easier for you to clean up or flush out that spot. You can also have an area that won’t be as damages as grass as well. What you feed your dog can also have an effect on how urine affects your yard. There are dog foods that may cause your dog to drink more liquids, which will mean that they will be urinating more as well. Make sure you also take this into consideration. Nonetheless, make sure that you still keep your dog well-hydrated so that they will be healthy. The healthier they are, the less damage their urine will cause on your yard or grass.