My 2 dogs have tore-up my lawn this winter, how can I make it look thick, green and healthy now?

Question

The dogs are both large, my back yard is 1/3 acre, I'm looking for whatever treatments might save my lawn from becoming a dirt-pit with worm dog paths. I love the dogs very much and do not plan to get rid of them, I would rather find methods of fixing my lawn instead. Thank you to all who provide serious and helpful replies.

Answer 1

My dear, you will have to deal with the dog issue before you deal with the lawn. Don't try to fix it until you figure out a way to keep the dogs from doing this, they will just undo your work. That is, unless you plan to keep fixing the lawn over and over. But it will never get fixed...the lawn needs to "heal", both physically from the digging, and chemically from the bathroom habits, as well as whatever they are burying that may rot in the soil, etc. Having the dogs continue to do this will never allow any holes to stay mended, or any grass to grow without being torn out, or any pH to clear up in the soil so grass can grow there. A certain amount of excrement on the lawn is great fertilizer but it needs to be calculated and spread around and probably neutralized a little, not in large piles straight from the dog.

Have you tried repellants? Behavior training? Confining them to a smaller area when they are alone, an area they can freely destroy without ruining the whole lawn?

It will take a change in the dogs to really solve the problem. And I understand loving and keeping your dogs. It may be a case of being able to get one of the two but not both.

If you can stop them from digging, the next step will probably be to relandscape the whole lawn. Fill the holes, rework the chemistry of the land, reseed the grass.

Answer 2

You can order some fertilizer. If it is so bad you can call a company and have them roll grass on.

Answer 3

lots of manure