Dead patches in the lawn

[Lawnmowerman]

I have a rather small backyard with several dogs. I believe they are causing the brown patches where they go. I read on another web site that the high nitrogen in their urine causes those patches. Is there anything I can do to minimize its effect or neutralize it.

[Dchall_San_Antonio]

This is one of my favorite subjects. I'm down to one dog, a male sort of a golden retriever looking mutt. He learned to pee from a female so instead of wetting every vertical object in the yard, he goes all in one place. With him I get the same effect as with a female going all in one place.

Usually dog spots are yellow and usually occur with female dogs and usually occur in the winter when the microbes are pretty much asleep. However, exceptions occur.

In the winter of 2002 when I had the yellow spots, I treated with table sugar to rebalance the carbon/nitrogen ratio. That worked fantastically well. Those former yellow dead spots regrew fast and turned dark green all through January and really never stopped all winter. I even had to mow when they got to about 8 inches tall. So that worked great. If your spots are yellowish, I would try the sugar. I just scattered a handful over each yellow spot.

Are you reading this thinking I'm about the throw in a huge "BUT?" Yes I am. I currently have brown spots where my dog pees. These are a fungal disease and are spreading fast. Is it a coincidence they started where my dog peed? I don't think so. My dog doesn't like the heat of day and prefers to remain indoors all day. He finally goes outside about 8 or 9 pm and then pees. I'm thinking that the nutrients in the urine combined with the wet leaves at night (no sun to kill any microbes) allowed the fungus to get a foothold. So instead of treating with sugar, I'm treating these brown spots with corn meal. I scatter a handful every 10 days when I water. After 3 weeks I'm anxiously awaiting some progress. At least the new grass looks okay.