As a dog owner, you’ve likely experienced those unsightly yellow or brown patches on your lawn caused by your pup’s urine. The nitrogen in dog pee can accumulate and burn grass, leaving dead spots if not treated. While you can’t eliminate nitrogen from your dog’s urine completely, there are steps you can take to reduce the nitrogen concentration and prevent further damage to your yard.
Understanding Nitrogen in Dog Urine
Nitrogen is a common element found in all living tissues and is a crucial nutrient for plants and animals. In dogs, nitrogen comes primarily from metabolizing proteins in their diet. As proteins are broken down, nitrogen is filtered out by the kidneys and expelled in the urine.
Dog urine contains about 95% water and 5% various solutes like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc. The high concentration of nitrogen in a small amount of liquid is what causes burning when it contacts grass. Even female dog urine with more volume can damage lawns due to frequency in one area.
How Much Nitrogen is Too Much?
Normal levels of nitrogen are fine and even beneficial for grass growth. But concentrated urine causes rapid nitrogen spikes that overwhelm and dehydrate grass roots. According to scientists, urine patches from an average dog on a meat-based diet can contain nitrogen levels up to 5 times higher than what turfgrass needs.
The best way to prevent urine spotting is reducing nitrogen concentration through diet. Monitor your lawn when first training puppies or adopting adult dogs to identify problem areas.
Strategies to Reduce Nitrogen in Urine
Increase Water Intake
Encouraging your dog to drink more water dilutes urine and reduces nitrogen concentration. Add water to their kibble, offer broth, or switch to a wet food diet. Offer fresh water frequently. Increased hydration benefits bladder and kidney health too.
Feed a Low-Protein Diet
Since protein metabolism produces nitrogen, reducing protein content in your dog’s diet directly lowers nitrogen in their urine Consult your vet, but moderately decreasing protein is safe for most dogs, especially low-activity house pets
Use a Urinary Food
Prescription urinary or bladder health diets are formulated to promote diluted urine. These foods have reduced protein, minerals that help inhibit crystal formation, and ingredients that increase thirst. They help manage urine issues in prone dogs.
Supplements
Some supplements claim to alter urine pH or reduce nitrogen. However, veterinarians caution against attempting to manipulate urine composition without medical oversight. Changes to urine acidity/alkalinity can cause health issues and supplements may not be safe.
Increase Fiber Intake
Adding fiber sources like pumpkin, sweet potatoes, oats, etc. can help promote regularity and increase binding of nitrogen during digestion so less ends up in urine. Too much fiber can cause diarrhea though, so transition gradually.
Avoid Fertilizers
Using nitrogen-heavy fertilizers in addition to dog urine pushes lawns over the edge, Opt for low or no-nitrogen products designed for dog owners Consider soil tests to determine if nutrients other than nitrogen are needed
Lawn Care for Dog Urine Damage
While the above tips reduce future nitrogen burn, you’ll also need to care for patches where grass is already damaged.
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Re-plant dead patches with dog-friendly grass seed blends Use a starter fertilizer to help establish new growth
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Rinse away urine immediately using the garden hose, before nitrogen concentrates and burns.
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Allow excess urine to fully soak into soil instead of runoff. Deep watering also helps dilute nitrogen deeper into soil.
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Maintain optimal soil pH – urine acidifies soil over time so monitor and amend regularly with lime.
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Fertilize at moderate levels based on soil tests. Look for balanced organic options vs synthetic nitrogen-heavy products.
When to See the Vet About Urine Issues
Most healthy dogs maintain normal urine nitrogen levels and pH. But certain medical conditions can alter urine composition, especially liver or kidney disease. If you notice symptoms like abnormal urine color or odor, lethargy, increased thirst, or accidents, see your veterinarian.
Likewise, get their opinion before making major dietary changes or trying supplements marketed to alter urine. Providing ample clean water, following veterinary nutritional advice, and prompt clean-up are the best ways to tackle urine spots. With some patience, you can have both a healthy pup and a lush green lawn.
Is There a Way to Lower Nitrogen Levels in My Dog’s Pee?
The pet product industry has caught wind of this shared desire for less nitrogen from their pet, and a few products have come out on the market. One of the more popular items are called Dog Rocks – actual Australian rocks that are sold for the sole purpose of lowering the nitrogen in your dog’s pee, thus avoiding those nasty burnt patches that are assumed to be the result of that.
How does it work? The idea behind this is that the rocks are paramagnetic (meaning slightly magnetic) – and will attract and absorb certain impurities such as tin, ammonia and nitrates (the water soluble form of nitrogen) that is typically found in tap water. While arguably most if not all rocks have some level of paramagnetism, Dog Rocks say they are “used by over a million dog owners worldwide to help stop pet urine from burning their grass.”
Here’s where their pseudoscience gets a little hairy. To start, the average level of nitrates in our drinking water is relatively low. The Environmental Protection Agency moderates a maximum nitrate capacity of 10mg/Liter. Since a liter of water weighs 1,000,000 milligrams, we are really talking a mere 0.001% of your tap water could contain nitrates. Secondly, as discussed earlier, the majority of nitrogen found in urine comes from metabolizing protein, a natural process that cannot and should not be avoided.
Of course, rocks might not be the answer. But there might be a way to slightly lower the nitrogen your dog is giving off. You might think that giving your dog more water would lower the nitrogen levels, but since most of your dog’s urine is already water, I don’t think it would make that much of a difference. The best thing you can do is look for a new brand of pet food with less protein. Less protein means less nitrogen is made. This might be a good idea, especially if your dog isn’t very active in general, but you should talk to your vet about it first.
What is nitrogen and why is it in dog pee?
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants, animals, and humans. Although the air we breathe is around 78% nitrogen, the gas form is hard for us (and your dog) to utilize in the body. Instead, we use a compound version of nitrogen that be obtained when ingesting protein.
In most if not all mammals, when protein is consumed (from meat, dairy, etc.), it is broken down into amino acids that will support any number of systems such as Muscular, Integumentary (skin), Cardiovascular, as well as hair and nail growth. The process produces the byproduct ammonia, which then forms with carbon dioxide to produce urea, a nitrogenous compound. The remaining nitrogen is eventually filtered out through the kidneys and discharged within the urine.
Urine (whether human or canine) contains about 95% water while just 5% contains added solutes that include nitrogen – as well as phosphorous, and potassium. Although the ratios can differ due to the diet and size of the animal, the general chemical structure is quite similar to what you’d find in store-bought fertilizer.
That being said, why is nitrogen in fertilizer thought to be good while nitrogen in urine thought to be bad? The idea is that when you have too much of one thing, it can make something else less available. That is why if there is too much nitrogen in the soil, it can make minerals like calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium leave the soil.
People who don’t like their dogs blame them for spreading a lot of nitrogen in one spot instead of spreading fertilizer evenly and in a controlled way.
If you could get your soil to properly distribute and use your dog’s urine, that would be great! One of the best ways to avoid yellow spots is to keep your lawn healthy and thriving so it can handle all the pee your dog leaves behind every day. Learn how in our article, 5 Steps to Maintain a Healthy Lawn That Can Withstand Your Dog’s Urine.
How to stop the dog pee from ruining your lawn
FAQ
What neutralizes nitrogen in dog urine?
Why is my dog’s urine high in nitrogen?
How do you lower urea nitrogen in dogs?
What can I feed my dog so his urine doesn’t kill grass?
How do I reduce nitrogen in my dog’s urine?
Reduce nitrogen in the urine You can decrease nitrogen products in your dog’s urine via a couple of different ways; the first is via nutrition, and the second is with supplemental ‘lawn burn products’. A quick google search might point you towards these ‘lawn burn products’.
What are the ways to lower protein in urine?
There are a number of ways to lower protein in urine, including: Diet: Eating a healthy diet can help to reduce the amount of protein in your urine. This includes eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It is also important to limit your intake of processed foods, sugary drinks, and saturated and unhealthy fats. Weight loss: Losing weight can help to improve kidney function and reduce the amount of protein in your urine. Blood pressure control: Controlling high blood pressure can help to protect your kidneys and reduce the amount of protein in your urine. Blood sugar control: Controlling high blood sugar levels can help to protect your kidneys and reduce the amount of protein in your urine. Medication: There are a number of medications that can be used to lower protein in urine. These medications work by reducing inflammation in the kidneys or by blocking the release of protein from the kidneys.
What is nitrogen & why is it in dog Pee?
What is nitrogen and why is it in dog pee? Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants, animals, and humans. Although the air we breathe is around 78% nitrogen, the gas form is hard for us (and your dog) to utilize in the body.
How do I stop dog urine from damaging my grass?
Some of the ways you can stop dog urine from damaging your grass include: 1. Dilute the nitrogen with water When your dog pees on the grass, throughly rinse the spot afterwards with a watering can or hose to prevent the grass soaking up too much nitrogen.