As delightful as dogs may be, they can destroy a natural lawn pretty quickly… and much faster than they can hurt artificial grass. This is even more frustrating when it’s not your own beloved four-legged friend, and instead it’s the neighbor dog from down the street. There are a few ways you can keep the neighbor dog off your lawn, whether real or artificial.
How Dogs Kill Lawns
Dogs can ruin your nice green lawn in record time, unless you’ve already installed a synthetic lawn. For one thing, dogs have claws on their feet. If they’re running and playing vigorously in your yard, especially more than one dog, the turf will get torn up and grass destroyed by its roots. This is even more the case with younger dogs, who are naturally more active. And of course, many families like to play fetching games with their dogs, encouraging them to run and frolic across the lawn even more.
Besides the normal wear and tear from playing, many dogs love to dig holes in the yard to keep cool or maybe just for fun, which obviously isn’t ideal for your lawn. Dogs with a digging habit will leave dangerous pitfalls all across your yard, which could trip up any unsuspecting pedestrian or child with a sprained ankle in record time. Not to mention, a lawn covered with huge holes is not attractive in the least.
Finally, even if the trespassing dog doesn’t run vigorously through your yard or actively dig it up, they’ll almost certainly take a potty break there. Animal urine burns grass because of the high ammonia concentrations, leaving pale dead spots in the dogs’ wake. This can be alleviated if you’re ready and able to run outside immediately with the hose and dilute the urine, however, this isn’t often a realistic solution for most of the population.
Prevention
As the saying goes, prevention is the best cure. It is far more challenging to repair dog damage after the fact than it is to prevent the dogs entering your property in the first place. A nice high fence can keep dogs from taking shortcuts over your yard.
You might also consider having a talk with your neighbor dog’s owner and ask them to please keep their dog away from your greenery. One persuasive argument might be to explain the harmful effects many lawn fertilizers can have on their furry friends, especially if they’re having a nibble at your grass on the way by as dogs like to do.
If your own digging dogs are the problem, consider keeping more entertainment for them around the house. Sometimes destruction is a symptom of boredom, and a few extra toys inside the house could help preserve the landscaping
Alternative Methods
Rather than focusing on prevention, you may consider proactively making the change to synthetic grass, especially if you have dogs of your own. Artificial turf foils animals in several ways:
- Digging habits are completely prevented, due to the nature of the synthetic turf
- Animal urine will not affect the artificial lawn in any way and can simply be hosed off
- No amount of running and playing will gouge up the surface
- No chemicals are needed, preventing inadvertent harm to pets or kids