What can we do with our dog urine (feces) damaged lawn?

Mistaya Land and Water has a complete program to fix dog urine damaged lawns. We can even fix severely damaged lawns that look like they are beyond repair.

   

What causes the dead spots ?

The damage is done by two compounds in the urine, one is salt (sodium Chloride) and the other excess Nitrogen from Ammonia . There are other compounds in the urine and feces that don't help much either like urea and acidic byproducts, but it mainly the first two items that cause the most damage if not treated.

The salt crystals build up in spots and cannot be washed away, once the concentration reaches a certain point the soil can no longer support plant life.

The excess nitrogen from the ammonia can actually "burn" the grass by overloading it like too much fertilizer can.

Our Dog Spot Remover uses a combination of cutting edge ionic transfer agents and natural minerals that will break down the sodium chloride (salt) and allow it to disperse.

The excess nitrogen salts are either dispersed or absorbed by a mineral compound that will store it and release it a slower rate to prevent burning. The toxic parts can now be washed away with watering and the soil is ready to support grass again.

Grass must be replanted at this stage as it has been killed in the urine spots.

Please note that most urban lawns are KBG (Kentucky blue grass) based. Almost all sod is grown and cut from Kentucky blue grass ( KBG) because the roots form a shallow mass that is easy to cut and roll up. Other grasses root systems are deeper growing and will not permit this as easily.

This is a problem because Kentucky blue grass is very sensitive and cannot tolerate salt. Replacing the sod is not the answer as the problem will repeat itself. Dogs and sod based lawns do work well together. Fescue based lawns are much more tolerant of dogs. Eco grass is fescue based.

The long term solution is to replace the blue grass with hardier grass like Eco Grass. Eco grass has a deep root system (up to 14 inches compared to sod's 2-3 inches) and is extremely drought and salt tolerant. An eco grass lawn will stand up much better to pets and require a lot less maintenance than blue grass lawns.

The good news is that we can replace your existing sod based blue grass lawn without digging it up. We'll explain this process a bit more later in the article.

Why do female dogs tend to cause more damage ?

Strangely enough, it's not a difference in the chemical composition or hormones etc. The habit of males dogs is to scent mark a territory. The male dog in general will "ration" a little squirt of pee for numerous spots in the yard when relieving himself to refresh his territory markers.

Female dogs will mostly just squat in one spot and pee in a larger puddle, hence the amount is greater in that one spot. This concentrates the effect to specific locations day after day until the level of salt and ammonia in the soil reaches a level deadly to plant life.

How do we fix the mess ?

Our program is straight forward and we have many different solutions that can fix your doggy damaged lawn. The process is not a do it yourself program. We use specialized equipment and products for the process.

There are many products on the market claiming to fix dog spots. In fact we used to sell one of our special blended products direct to homeowners.  Due to the fact that we are correcting 2 types of built up soil toxicity, dealing with dead thatch and roots plus replacing the grass in the dead zones what we found was that the process was too involved and specialized for most homeowners to have good success with and as a result we no longer offer the product for DIY.

You can try and fix the spots yourself with some of the products available in stores , however don't be surprised if it does not work very well. Most of the products contain a calcium compound that is not very soluble. It can take weeks or months to work and remove the toxicity. In that time period the grass still cannot grow. Mistaya Land can always fix the lawn afterwards if your initial experimental repairs fail. Our process works within hours and as a result we can apply grass seed and get it growing quickly.

We feel we need to do the evaluation and application professionally to insure good results. Often times the issue with dog damage is compounded by our clay soils here in Alberta which can work against store bought dog damage repair kits. Our process treats both the problem spots and the entire sub surface UNDER the lawn.

Home dog spot repair kits end with mismatched textures, colours and a strange looking patchwork lawn. Our complete process results in much better, even looking lawn afterwards PLUS the grass species will be changed over to a fescue blended lawn.

Maintenance after the repair is simple, just use our liquid dog spot treatment or sprinkle some of our organic Dog Spot Remover over the areas your dog uses regularly (weekly, biweekly or monthly) and then just water the area with your hose to dilute and wash away the neutralized salt.

Severely dog damaged lawns

Have no fear, we can fix yards that look like a testing ground for Agent Orange ...We can even fix the lawn without digging out the old turf and top soil.

Mistaya's program starts with treating the spots or the entire yard to remove the salt, excess nitrogen and other toxins. The next step of our our program involves adding the organic soil amendments and laying a new layer of our liquid soil matrix with eco grass seed (or other) mixed in.

We can lay this liquid matrix right over the existing damaged grass without digging up the old lawn using our specialized equipment. In about 2-3 weeks your lawn will start to look like a brand new lawn. within a year the old lawn will be replaced by the more aggressive native species based eco grass. If at this stage you wish to maintain a blue grass lawn, we can reseed with blue grass.

The cost is a fraction of the cost required to remove the old turf and soil, then replace it all over again.

Eco Grass is naturally much more salt tolerant than sod based lawns (blue grass), which means your new lawn will not be as susceptible to dog spots ever again. A Eco grass turf lawn is every bit as nice as a blue grass lawn, it is lush and a deep green, but much easier to care for than a sod based lawn.

To maintain the repaired lawn and prevent the dead spots from returning, you just need to sprinkle a cup or two of some granular or liquid Dog Spot Remover regularly over the summer and even winter in the places your dog frequents the most .

Best Time to Treat

We can do this process any time from late April until September. However the best time is early spring. Most dog damage occurs AFTER winter snow melts. In many yards dog urine builds up over the winter and a huge concentration of frozen urine is released all at once into the grass. The grass is dormant and weak in the spring before green up and this huge quantity of urine can be lethal.

If we treat the yard in the spring, we can often catch a lot of the toxicity and remove it before it does permanent damage. Your dog can access the yard even after we apply the product. The application forms a mat like layer over the grass and soil that can withstand a certain amount of abuse and traffic. We can talk about this when we consult on your lawn.

Other Considerations :

This treatment will provide a number of other benefits to your lawn as the process will treat your clay based soil at the same time. The dog damage treatment is similar to the Clay Doctor clay soil treatment as both use ionic transfer to repair the problems in the soil and render it both fertile and less compacted.

This is a huge bonus as the treated lawn will be softer and retain more water after the treatment. You will find your lawn requires a lot less watering and fertilizing after treatment as well.

To find out more about the other benefits Read about Clay Doctor here

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Mistaya Land And Water Corp.
Environmentally friendly commercial and residential solutions
Toll Free 1-877-894-9378 - Direct Dial 1-403-638-8090
Email : ecograss@mac.com 

 

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