Pet-friendly rental homes are a growing segment of the North Austin single-family rental home market. Pets are becoming very common nowadays, so property owners have come to allow them under certain conditions. Most pet-friendly rentals include a lawn that is designed with a pet’s safety in mind. However, to some pets, the lawn is a likely waste area. This often causes brown spots sprawled across the area. Don’t let your pet urine spots to spoil your rental home’s lawn. Try one or more strategies recommended by lawn care experts.
Dog urine, filled with nitrogen, causes grass to turn brown. In small amounts, nitrogen is good for your lawn. Brown patches tell you that the grass is being killed due to too much nitrogen in specific areas. Avoid putting nitrogen-rich fertilizer in areas where your dog constantly urinates. 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. This is relatively easy to do, especially if your dog urinates in the same place every time. Regardless, spraying the lawn with water will help dilute the urine and prevent it from burning the grass.
Wanting to preserve their green lawns, dog owners have found that they can achieve this by encouraging their pets to drink more water or by giving them supplements designed to neutralize the nitrogen in their urine. The rationale behind the first idea is to dilute your dog’s urine by giving them more water. Be warned, though, that making dogs drink too much water could lead to unhealthy side effects, too. 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.
Lastly, a lot of pet owners have protected their rental home’s lawn from pet urine spots by training their dog to urinate in other areas. Specifically, in areas of the yard that do not have grass — that’s where you can train your dog to urinate. If your dog is receptive to consistent training, this is a great way to go about things. Other options you could explore include 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 the prevention you need from your dog damaging a healthy, green lawn.
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. It would do you well to listen to the insight behind these strategies so that you can maintain in good condition your pet-friendly rental home and lawn. If you need help managing your pet-friendly rental or finding tenants, contact us online or call us at 512-580-3099 for a consultation.
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