As the link that Whalen posted indicates, dog urine can burn grass and plants. It is primarily attributed to the amount of nitrogen in the urine and because different dogs have different amounts of nitrogen...some dogs don’t damage grass, while others do. I’ve had dogs all of my life and I know this to be a fact. I don’t think the type of grass matters, although the overall health of the lawn, the type of fertilizer used and how hot it is might.
My current dogs leave little brown spots all over my back yard. I know they are the cause of it and I accept it as a minor drawback to having my beloved pets. But I don’t expect my neighbors to accept it.
When I walk my dogs through the neighborhood I do not allow them to step one foot onto someone else’s property. They want to ... very badly ... they are drawn to the grass and plants and all the wonderful smells. They try to pull me over to those aroma smorgasbords. They want to sniff out the previous visitors and leave a calling card of their own...but I just don’t let them do it. Such is life, they get over it. There are plenty of common areas and dog parks where I can let them indulge in their instinctual habits without trespassing on and causing damage to another’s property. If during our walks they have a true need to eliminate, then they just have to do it in the street, but in general I keep them on a schedule where most of that is done in my own (brown spotted) yard.
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