My Newly Sodded Backyard VS. Three German Shepherds: And the Winner Is…
Long story short: Sadly, the long-fescue sod is losing. We desperately needed to renovate our backyard, which had become a large expanse of dirt sloping toward our recessed patio. When it rained, the 
mud poured onto the patio and into our home via many muddy paws. The inside of our house is a disaster area which we’re determined to renovate and paint this summer, but we first had to stop the tide of mud entering the house, so the backyard had to be our first project. You’ll have no problem recognizing which photos are before and after . We were thrilled…for about two days.
At the moment, we have three German Shepherds—two of our own and a foster. Those giant paws running rapidly from one end of the yard to the other several times a day are tearing it up slowly. But that’s not the big problem…
Hindsight Is 20-20
I’m still working on training all three to relieve themselves in the far-back part of the yard, which is mostly brush and trees. Not happening as quickly as we’d like. After a few days, the yellow spots began to appear, followed by big patches of dead grass and dirt.
About that same time, I noticed an ad for a product that neutralized the high nitrogen content and high ph in dog urine to prevent this problem. I hit the dog-supplies trail and purchased two products—one for the dogs and another to spray on the yellow spots and neutralize everything at the point of contact (which, of course, means I have to watch them while they’re in the yard to see where they go and run outside with the spray bottle, hoping I’ll remember the exact spot where the stream landed. Easier said than done.) So, right now, it’s hard to tell if it’s working. We wish we’d started them on the edible prevention well before the sod went down.
It’s Not Too Late For YOU!
If you have dogs and you’re planning to install new sod, the easiest protection may be to simply train your dogs to do their business in one spot specially designed for them, filled with either river pebble or Astroturf for easy clean-up. But just in case, you should know about the different kinds of urine neutralizers. There are products on the market for both dogs and lawns. Ingestible urine neutralizers are available as chewables or liquids/sprays for their food or water. And you can choose from a number of lawn treatments on the market. I’m off to do some research on repairing my lawn before the problem gets any worse. Meanwhile, our beloved dogs are enjoying the heck out of their new backyard “digs.”
