That's quite a lot of maintenance with a dog. A friend had fake grass put down because of the urine burns on her real grass but she has to hose it off everyday. The hosing takes a while as it's a sand based turf so you end up with clumps of urine soaked sand. Direct sunlight on dog wee results in an awful smell!
Haha, I suppose the extra rainfall you'd have would keep it cleaner too. Maybe Astroturf is a good option in the UK!
My neighbours have astroturfed their back garden, I never knew until they told me. Looks really good too. We've fenced ours off for the winter as it gets so wet it's like a swimming pool, well muddy pond really . I expect in the summer Dexter will be back to digging it up anyway and burning it with his wee
My sister has fake lawn - a pretty big one. It looks great, feels fab to walk on and sit on in the summer (those couple of days you get each year) and, the main reason for doing it, her dog no longer brings muddy paw prints into the house when he goes out for a wee. She never hoses it down, for the reasons Julie mentioned! She does sometimes hoover it, though....
We've also found that my friend's fake lawn gets too hot in the sun so maybe it's just here in Australia that it's less practical. It's a shame as we really considered it before putting in our turf.
You can't really beat concrete! Urine burn used to be a problem but when Lady grew up it seemed to stop. No idea if it's an age related thing or not, or maybe the grass has just toughened up a bit!
I remember the burned bits as a puppy but don't get them now either. Not sure when it stopped. Just age? Post spay? (that was a 6 months for us) Funny, but we now have clumps of verdant green which I suspect may have been the previous burnt areas.
I just cannot understand the fake grass thing... I'd much rather have a patchy, scrubby bit of ground with plants, bees, and insect life, than a dead, plastic desert that supports nothing.
We had that in our old house - around the edges of the brown dead bits there was masses of lush green grass that green like crazy! Like twice the speed of the rest of the garden!
My lawn now has patches on! Didn't think there was much I could do about it however, I am going to try and water the patch with a hose straight after she does her business!
I was only thinking today that Cassie's wee doesn't seem to be burning the grass anymore. I was amazed last year that the grass she wee'd on went brown within a week, at age 8 weeks, I assumed it was something that happened as a bitch matured but not so. It even seems that since she came in season it isn't happening. Or maybe she doesn't wee on the first bit of grass she gets to, often preferring to wait until she goes out of the garden.
I THINK we've got fewer brown patches this summer. Coco still does a huge girly wee and we have a few bald spots, but it certainly looks more green this year (it wan't Belle causing them, she never made burnt patches). Could be we've had more rain than usual.
I'm quite paranoid about my little patch of green lol. Mollie will wee on command, but not Tatze. So I take her for a stroll up to the local green for a wee if we are about to go in the garden. She only has three wees a day, so they are BIG ones!
Does she fake it? Boys or girls, mine will fake a pee. For instance the one I ask for before we get into the car. The only way to test for sure is for me to pat the ground or bush with a bare hand. Um, no.
