Sod over grass

Hello. This is my first post. I laid sod in my yard about a year ago - it was doing great over the summer but my dogs have really beaten it to a pulp through our winter. So - there were some really large areas of pee-burned grass - so I got some odd shaped pieces of sod from a new home project and ripped up the old sod and placed the new stuff down. I had an extra piece of sod left over - so I just placed it on top of some of the dead stuff - I ran out of time.

Anyway - I have noticed over the last week of pulling the edges up to look for roots growing that the piece of sod that was just laid over the dead lawn is growing roots MUCH better than the other stuff I did all that work to 'plant'. The water/sun conditions are the same.

I read someone asking about doing this - and there were varying opinions - but my 'test' proves it for me. Next time - I will just lay it on the top and be done with it.

Doug

What kind of grass is it?

Belle

I keep hearing about grass dying where dogs pee on it, but I've never seen it. I can tell where the dog has gone on the lawn by the grass being about 5 times as high there as it is other places. So what is the deal?

Both the grass being 5x as high and the grass dying/turning yellow are because of the nitrogen in the pee. A little bit of N will give you lots of growth, too much will burn the grass. So it could be the dying spots come from a dog going over and over again in the same spot, vs maybe your dog spreads things out a little more. Or a smaller dog will have a smaller volume of pee which might not be sufficient to burn the grass.

It is a BlueGrass mixture. I have 3 dogs - with a relatively small backyard so there is pressure on the grass due to all fo the peeing. I have heard people say that females pee is worse than males - but I don't know about that. I think since the females pee in one spot versus males sprinkling - the females tend to burn the grass more than the males.

And - I live in a semi-arid environment. I would think getting more precip would wash away the excessive nitrogen perhaps avoiding the burnt grass.

This message was edited May 15, 2012 10:46 AM

If your dog is staining the grass and constant peeing will eventually burn that area then you have an undressed bitch, her urine is always very strong as she needs to let other male dogs know she is around, if the bitch has been dressed so she cant come into season, then there should be no problem with her peeing the lawn, I suspect the rain wetting grass / soil has caused more damage as the dogs scrape and pound the area after toileting.

IF the dogs are young and will be family pets for years to come still, then maybe relaying a lawn every year is a waste of time and I would be thinking of maybe laying black woven fabric down and a thick layer of either gravel (not too small to get stuck in a dogs foot pads) or lay a thick layer of wood chip, but again, ask if this would be suitable for a pet run area as some wood chip can cause skin problems, itching and can come infected..
Hope this helps give you other alternatives instead of having the cost of grass every year. Good luck. WeeNel.

I maintained a very small lawn area with three 180+ lb dogs for many years so it is possible.
The key is in watering urine in within eight or so hours of it being deposited.
Here is the official word-
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/turf/dog_lawn_problems.html

I also found that using a dilute soap mixture every month or so kept the area smelling sweet and helps a great deal with getting water to penetrate the soil easily.

I have a much larger lawn now but still have the behemoth dogs and I have no urine damage.
I do scoop poop the moment it happens but I do not water the urine into the lawn. My animals are raw fed so do consume moisture laden foods as well as drinking a lot, which is very helpful in that they produce diluted urine.

Encouraging dogs to drink more is helpful but never use any food additives manufactured for this as they can change the dogs blood pH in a misinformed attempt to alter urine's properties.

If your lawn is very damaged I would recommend fencing half of it off to recuperate without the dogs having access, then the next year switch the access so the other side can recover. I have done this and it is easier than it sounds- we used metal farm fence posts and plastic net fencing. That said my dogs do respect boundaries and are well supervised when outdoors.

You CAN have a lovely garden with dogs- even massive bigfooted dogs- but it takes an extra step or two.
But very much worth it!

Thank you. The soap idea is a good one - and I was already planning on the fence off an area idea. All that said - things are looking a bit better now that the weather is warming and my sprinklers are back on. But my big dogs will take a toll on the area of lawn they launch on every morning I'm sure!