Lawn burn from female puppy......help!

jomalone14

A familiar problem to us gardening/dog lovers....

I adopted a 7 month old female collie pup 6 weeks ago. In that time, she's managed to burn a lot of the lawn each time she pees. The same thing happened when I got my older male dog over 2 years ago but it seemed to clear up once he was changed from puppy food onto adult food.

I'm currently feeding the 7 month old female on Royal Canin Medium Junior...she only gets dry food.
My 3 year old male is fed on Royal Canin Medium Light Adult. He's also on dry food only.

I believe the higher protein content in puppy food contributes to higher levels of nitrogen in their urine.

Would I be doing her an injustice now by changing her on to adult food at 7 months?

Apart from trying to train her to pee elsewhere or stand with a watering can at the ready every time she pees in the garden, is there anyone out there with a miracle cure?

toadfly

Once my dogs were neutered, it stopped happening. Don't know about change of food though.

cocker5

jomalone14 wrote: »

A familiar problem to us gardening/dog lovers....

I adopted a 7 month old female collie pup 6 weeks ago. In that time, she's managed to burn a lot of the lawn each time she pees. The same thing happened when I got my older male dog over 2 years ago but it seemed to clear up once he was changed from puppy food onto adult food.

I'm currently feeding the 7 month old female on Royal Canin Medium Junior...she only gets dry food.
My 3 year old male is fed on Royal Canin Medium Light Adult. He's also on dry food only.

I believe the higher protein content in puppy food contributes to higher levels of nitrogen in their urine.

Would I be doing her an injustice now by changing her on to adult food at 7 months?

Apart from trying to train her to pee elsewhere or stand with a watering can at the ready every time she pees in the garden, is there anyone out there with a miracle cure?

have you considered having a specific area for her to toilet in?

My cocker only goes where i have small patch of stones... which is great for cleaning reasons etc.

Do you have a side enterance? reason i ask is my sister who has a newish cocker puppy but gates either end, large gate at the front nearest the house and a waist high gate down where it leads to the back garden. She puts her cocker in there to wee / poo each day and has done for the past 6 months... now the pup knows where she supposed to go they leave the small gate open she plays happily around the garden but makes her way back to the "designated" area when she needs to go... its brilliant, keeps 90% of the back garden in excellent condition and it means the poos are easy to pick up (on concrete) and the wees the wash down daily... might be an idea for you.

Don think changing food will make a difference with regard to her staining the grass when weeing... but personally i would move both dogs off royal canin.. (apologies not trying to be negative) but its not great quality food for the price. Also i wouldn't move her onto adult food until she's nearing a year old.

jomalone14

toadfly wrote: »

Once my dogs were neutered, it stopped happening. Don't know about change of food though.

You could be right, she was neutered 3 weeks ago. My older dog is also neutered and yes, the lawn doesn't turn brown anymore when he pees. I guess time will tell!

Outkast_IRE

I have a female collie that is spayed, she burns the lawn still. I dont think there is much you can do about it unless you teach her to go in one area.

Usually male dogs, like to urinate on trees, bushes and walls so lawn burn tends not to be a problem, whereas bitches tend to squat and go in the middle of the grass.

jomalone14

cocker5 wrote: »

have you considered having a specific area for her to toilet in?

My cocker only goes where i have small patch of stones... which is great for cleaning reasons etc.

Do you have a side enterance? reason i ask is my sister who has a newish cocker puppy but gates either end, large gate at the front nearest the house and a waist high gate down where it leads to the back garden. She puts her cocker in there to wee / poo each day and has done for the past 6 months... now the pup knows where she supposed to go they leave the small gate open she plays happily around the garden but makes her way back to the "designated" area when she needs to go... its brilliant, keeps 90% of the back garden in excellent condition and it means the poos are easy to pick up (on concrete) and the wees the wash down daily... might be an idea for you.

Don think changing food will make a difference with regard to her staining the grass when weeing... but personally i would move both dogs off royal canin.. (apologies not trying to be negative) but its not great quality food for the price. Also i wouldn't move her onto adult food until she's nearing a year old.

Unfortunately in my case, my side and back garden are all the one space and it's wide open with no stone areas. Lots of green grass (now brown!) and plenty of flower beds around the perimeter walls. I'm now thinking of toileting her on a shortish leash for the next week or so in the garden. This way I can steer her to a certain area. She's super intelligent (she's a collie!) so she should get the message fairly quickly.

Re Royal Canin, the only reason she's on it is because of my older dog. He had lots of digestive issues on Burns and James Wellbeloved as a pup but Royal Canin seems to agree with him for the last couple of years. It's the old debate about which food is the best that confuses me every time. I strive to feed them the best, I'd like to think that a relatively expensive brand does contain good ingredients and is stocked by my vet ,but who knows what the best food is for a dog, lots of differing opinions here on that one!

Many thanks for your input.

jomalone14

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

I have a female collie that is spayed, she burns the lawn still. I dont think there is much you can do about it unless you teach her to go in one area.

Usually male dogs, like to urinate on trees, bushes and walls so lawn burn tends not to be a problem, whereas bitches tend to squat and go in the middle of the grass.

Yes, that's exactly whats happening. I'm going to start toileting her on a leash in a certain area of the garden to see if that will help.

Outkast_IRE

jomalone14 wrote: »

Yes, that's exactly whats happening. I'm going to start toileting her on a leash in a certain area of the garden to see if that will help.

You can try, but without constant reinforcement training it may be a tough one to keep going.