Re: Salt and Urine (Was Re: [compost_tea] Re: A great raw material for compost

From: Ted Peterson <ted.peterson_at_tcsn.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 22:46:52 -0800

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: soilfoodweb_at_aol.com
  To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
  Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 10:06 PM
  Subject: Re: Salt and Urine (Was Re: [compost_tea] Re: A great raw materi=
al for compost


  Hi Ted -

  Having raised Golden Retrievers most of my childhood (

Elaine:

Three different vets stated that in their experience, females caused the mo=
st damage to turf through urine. We have a chocolate lab mix, male, pees o=
n our lawn, no brown spots. He pees on our neighbor's lawn as does a femal=
e border collie mix. The neighbor told me my dog was ruining his lawn and =
that might have been true. When I locked him (The dog. I let the neighbor=
 stay out free.) in the yard, the bitch was still using his lawn and the sp=
ots appeared in the same pattern as when my dog was out. So I didn't think=
 it was my dog. The collie was picked up by the sheriffs (animal regs.) an=
d I let my dog out again. He started peeing on my neighbor's lawn. No spo=
tting. I guess it's the children we feed him regularly.

I will try to dig up some hard data. But the guy who did the tea test for h=
is female dog was told the same by his vet. My daughter has four dogs, two=
 Queenslands, a Jack Russel and some type of weiner dog mix with ??? She t=
old me her vet said the same to her. Female dog urine is worse for lawns. =
 He said puppies will often spot a lot too.

In the past, I had a female Liver Dalmation that ruined a great lawn with u=
rine. She started biting so I got rid of her. I had to put her down becau=
se I will not give anyone a dog that bites. We got a male pound puppy of u=
ndetermined mix -- some kind of terrier. Same lawn, spots but they were a =
lot less and the lawn recovered on it's own even from the puppy. Our gardn=
er said he was glad we got rid of the female because they ruin lawns with u=
rine.

I know it's anecdotal but that's what it is.

I'll bet there is some kind of dog lover's group I could find and post a qu=
estion.

It's beside the point though. What interested me was that the ACT did some=
thing good to lawns scared by animal urine. By the way, we have a lot of d=
eer where I live and people tell me that deer urine is twice as bad as dog =
urine. It totally devastates a lawn. I'm trying to get one of them let me=
 try tea there. We have skunks too but I don't think ACT will have much ef=
fect on a skunk. Besides, when I see a skunk, I tend to head in the opposi=
te direction. I don't know if skunk urine causes spots on turf. Every onc=
e in a while, a dog will get on the wrong end of a skunk here. I thought a=
bout dousing a skunked dog with ACT to see if anything would happen. Could=
n't get anyone to let me try. Besides, a skunked dog is a pretty happy ani=
mal. I guess they like the smell as far as I can tell. Better than rollin=
g in and eating fresh horse manure and dogs love that. They also love to r=
oll around in dead, rotting animals. We get dead seals that wash up on sho=
re and the dogs just go crazy rolling around in the rotting carcassas. The=
y can bring home some real interesting smells.

Ted Peterson
Earth-Wise/Spirit of the Earth



Received on Wed Jan 28 2004 - 12:14:01 EST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:15:02 EST