Pet-friendly rental homes are a growing segment of the Homewood single-family rental home market. Since many renters have expressed a desire to have pets, a lot of property owners have also come to decide to allow them under certain conditions. Most pet-friendly rentals include a lawn that is designed with a pet’s safety in mind. However, there are a few pets that will likely use the lawn as their waste area — this causes ugly brown spots. To avoid spoiling your rental home’s lawn with pet urine, here are a few strategies recommended by lawn care experts.
Dog urine causes grass to turn brown because it has a lot of nitrogen. In small amounts, nitrogen is good for your lawn. Brown patches are evidence of too much nitrogen killing the grass. If your dog has a specific area for urinating, avoid putting nitrogen-rich fertilizer in the same area. You might be damaging the lawn more with your fertilizer if it has nitrogen in it, so be careful to either choose a nitrogen-free fertilizer or don’t apply fertilizer to the pet urine spots.
Another simple strategy is to rinse the lawn after your dog urinates on it. Of course, it’s easier when your dog goes to urinate in the same place over and over again. Nonetheless, spraying the lawn with water will help dilute the urine and prevent it from burning the grass.
Another tip dog owners have found useful is encouraging their pets to drink more water or giving them supplements designed to neutralize the nitrogen in their urine. In diluting your dog’s urine by giving them more water, you’re also diluting the nitrogen in their urine. Just make sure you don’t make your dogs drink too much water because it might cause them to become ill. The alternative is to try pet-safe supplements designed to help minimize the damage to your lawn. Dietary supplements like these are said to bind with the nitrogen in your dog’s urine, making it less harmful to grass.
In conclusion, lots of pet owners have protected their rental home’s lawn from pet urine spots by training their dog to urinate in other areas. You could train your dog to urinate in certain spots of the yard that don’t have grass. This is a feasible option, especially if your dog is receptive to consistent training. You should also contemplate other options like fencing or a urine-resistant ground cover to create a dog-friendly place for them to pee. A small patch of clover, pea gravel, or even mulch could be all that separates a healthy, green lawn from one that’s been damaged by your dog.
Good lawn maintenance can encourage a healthy lawn resistant to brown spots. But sometimes even careful tending and daily watering aren’t enough to prevent them. Stick to any of these strategies, and watch how you can easily keep your pet-friendly rental home and lawn in wonderful condition. If you need help managing your pet-friendly rental or finding tenants, contact us online or call us at 205-793-0700 for a consultation.
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