The last thing you want to find during your spring garden cleanup is a splotchy lawn dampening your style, but if you’re a doting dog lover, urine spots are unfortunately unavoidable. The good news? You can not only fix this annoying pee problem, but also prevent it! Here are some repair tips to help your Oceanside, NY, lawn go from piss-poor to picture-perfect this spring.

Why Does Dog Pee Damage My Lawn?

A lawn with a live-in pup can be pretty easy to spot, with its characteristic patches of light green or brown caused by nonchalant piddling. This tell-tale lawn damage is caused by high concentrations of nitrogen and salt in dog urine, which burns grass after frequent and long-term exposure. While some smaller patches of burned grass may heal themselves over time, many others will need some serious repair work. Often attributed only to female dogs, the truth is that any dog that squats to pee can kill your lawn due to the concentrated pooling of pee in one place. Female dogs, puppies, and senior dogs usually pee this way, while most adult males lift their hind leg when they go #1, distributing their urine over a larger area. So, regardless of your pooch’s peeing preferences, you’ll definitely want to gather up some supplies and start repairing your lawn, with the help of these awesome tips!

How to Repair Urine Spots and Bare Patches in Your Oceanside Lawn

We love our dogs, but not their pee spots! If you’ve got dead, brown patches of grass on your lawn from Fifi taking too many tinkles, there are some easy ways to repair them quickly and get your lawn looking lush and healthy again:

• Water your lawn thoroughly on burned areas to help flush away any excess built-up salt compounds from the grass and surrounding soil. While this probably won’t be enough to repair your grass on its own, it’s still important for the next steps of your lawn repair process.
• Rake away or remove the dead grass from your lawn. Make sure you don’t leave any bits of dead or dying grass behind. 
• Add a fresh layer of topsoil to the lawn before putting down your new grass seed mix. You can purchase a bag of run-of-the-mill grass seed or use an all-in-one lawn repair mix. 
• Water your grass seed regularly until it sprouts, and remember to keep Fifi away from the new grass patches while they grow in. We suggest putting up some netting or other kinds of barricades to keep their paws off during this final repair stage. 

How to Prevent Urine Spots on Your Long Island Lawn

Now that you’ve repaired all those burned patches of lawn, it’s time to be even more diligent about preventing them from returning. If this sounds like a bit of a chore, it’s because it is. Don’t worry, though; the payoff will be well worth it! A great way to solve the urine problem on your grass is to train your dog to pee in a designated area of your yard. Create a pile of mulch and encourage your pets to pee on it every time you’re outside; with an abundance of praise (and treats, of course), you can keep your pup from creating more patches for you to repair in the future. Keeping your lawn well-hydrated and using a nitrogen-rich fertilizer can also help keep your lawn greener and reduce the impact of dog urine, further preventing future repairs. 

Another great tip for preventing urine spots and future repairs on your lawn is to consider more walks. If time and capacity permit, training your little bundle of furry sunshine to only relieve themselves on walks can go a long way towards solving your burned grass problems. A dog left to their own devices in a backyard often spells disaster, and not just the pee kind! You’ll also likely be dealing with holes, damaged flower patches, and many other troublesome repair jobs courtesy of a bored furball. 

If you’re struggling with dog urine spots, we hope you’ve found our lawn repair tips for your Oceanside, NY, garden helpful. We, too, have spent many years cleaning up after our pets, and no one knows dogs–and dog-related repairs–better than us!