dog urine damage on lawns [re: my lawn is dying]

Hi Pete, I have been using tomato juice for about a year without ever thinking about how it works. So when you asked I googled and found this:-
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/turf/dog_lawn_problems.html
It seems that the only possible benefit the tomato juice might have is to make the dogs drink more!
However, at about the same time my dogs became a little overweight; my garden is quite big but now the dogs are older [10, 10 and 8] they don't rush around so much unless I am in the garden with them, and they don't get long walks because I am somewhat disabled. I changed their food to a low protein diet food, and add cooked mince with tomato juice added, quite diluted on economy grounds. According to this article, it is the reduced protein and higher liquid intake that dilutes and reduces the nitrogen in the urine, and hence no brown patches! Sorry about the long winded answer. I am now ashamed of not discovering this before, and spreading unsubstantiated information....
The lower protein food is more expensive; it is good for older dogs anyway, but the increased fluid intake is easy to arrange unless you have a very picky dog. Do you have dog?

 

Yes I have a dog, a bitch, and all the bare patched to prove it, still I've never really been one to worry too much about the grass (its not a lawn), but it does look a bit scruffy in summer or after a frosty spell.
Thats an interesting artical, dont know if she'll like tomato juice, I'll have to try it sometime. Thanks.