# fewer noticeable pee spots - bermuda or st. augustine?



## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

My female 70 pound dog emptied her full bladder in one spot on the front yard and MAN did it leave a big brown spot! I now remember my neighbor as a kid dealing with this with his bermuda grass. i don't remember it being as much of an issue in our St. Augustine lawn - but maybe I'm just mis-remembering? Even as an adult, when I had my own lawn that was a mix of St. Augustine and Bahia, I don't remember a lot of pee spots. Granted, those lawns were also mostly weeds. 
So, am I remembering right, and St. Augustine handles the urine better? If so, I think I'll change my sod plans for the backyard to St. Augustine over Bermuda, which makes me sad, but I have three 70lb dogs in a fairly small backyard (most of the square footage is hogged by the pool/patio), and green St. Augustine will certainly look better than Celebration polka dotted with brown spots. 
Or do they handle it the same, and I have a faulty memory, or just wasn't paying attention?


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## Darth_V8r (Jul 18, 2019)

The section of my yard that is Palmetto St Augustine turns brown as soon as the dog starts sniffing around for a place to pee. I assumed the St Augustine was super sensitive to it. Sucks because the dog always pees right near the porch so the grass right up by the house looks the worst. I've been letting the other grasses take over that area to see if it's any better. It seems that when the dog pees on the centipede or zoysia areas, it never shows up


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## LawnRat (Mar 22, 2019)

My dog pen is a mix of palmetto and floratam. One little sprinkle of pee will kill a square foot of palmetto, but the floratam seems to handle it pretty well and recovers fast if there's damage, unless fido keeps using the same spot. Can't help with bermuda. I'm guessing you'll want to look at the salinity/salt tolerances of any grass you are interested in...? I think it's the salt in the pee that kills the grass? I can show you a picture of my floratam runners going into my brackish canal...it seems to love drinking from it.

Side note, I was thinking of using a remote control valve to run a sprinkler in the dog pen after they go. Like flushing the toilet .


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

Ok, so Palmetto is a no-go. Id' already decided not to try that one after the Palmetto vs Floratam race a while back. Hadn't thought about centipede, and I'd love Zoysia but worry it won't take the beating the dogs put on it. They can tear up turf and I'd imagine Zoysia would take forever to repair itself.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Bermuda and zoysia both spot badly with urine, especially female dogs that empty the bladder in one spot. Bermuda will heal up in a week or so while zoysia takes a couple of months.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

Spammage said:


> Bermuda and zoysia both spot badly with urine, especially female dogs that empty the bladder in one spot. Bermuda will heal up in a week or so while zoysia takes a couple of months.


I guess it is good only one of the three is female! 
Do you know if St. Augustine has less of an issue?


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

ktgrok said:


> Spammage said:
> 
> 
> > Bermuda and zoysia both spot badly with urine, especially female dogs that empty the bladder in one spot. Bermuda will heal up in a week or so while zoysia takes a couple of months.
> ...


Unfortunately, I don't know. If it is damaged though, it will likely take longer to heal than bermuda, but less than zoysia.


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## JWAY (Oct 16, 2018)

My 50 lb female Golden Retriever stays in a 4000 ft2 fenced area and usually pees in a 1000 ft2 area of it and I've never seen a brown spot in my St. Aug. which is Raleigh (I think).


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## FlaDave (Jul 10, 2018)

I don't recall ever having pee spots in my old St Aug yard. Mind you this was before I joined TLF and started learning about lawncare. I also never fertilized it either, just cut every Saturday at the highest setting. That yard was mostly shade and I remember the back yard always looked a little nicer than the front. My backyard now being Bermuda, has a 200sqft section that stays with burn spots and grows 10x faster than the rest of the yard lol


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## lucas287 (Jun 3, 2018)

So much has to do with the dog too. I have a black lab (female) that has never left a pee spot in our yard. Didn't start noticing pee spots until we got our second dog, a german shorthair (also female). She has toxic pee! She smokes my bermuda. But as spammage said, it comes back really quickly.

Humic Acid is supposed to help as well. In my elementary understanding of how it works, it holds excess nutrients (pee is nitrogen basically) in suspension and slowly releases it to the plant as needed. In theory - i put down a heavy dose of Andersons Humic DG on Monday. Time will tell...


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

lucas287 said:


> So much has to do with the dog too. I have a black lab (female) that has never left a pee spot in our yard. Didn't start noticing pee spots until we got our second dog, a german shorthair (also female). She has toxic pee! She smokes my bermuda. But as spammage said, it comes back really quickly.
> 
> Humic Acid is supposed to help as well. In my elementary understanding of how it works, it holds excess nutrients (pee is nitrogen basically) in suspension and slowly releases it to the plant as needed. In theory - i put down a heavy dose of Andersons Humic DG on Monday. Time will tell...


Well, this dog is definitely a grass killer, lol. Big brown spot about over a foot in diameter. And that spot has had humic applied 3 times in the last two months, plus the next day after I saw the spot I put some in a watering can and saturated it 

Of course, then if I do St. Aug in the back the issue becomes, how on earth would I keep them separate? I mean, the yard is fenced, but not like bermuda or st. augustine give a crud, lol. I'm sure I'd have bermuda in the st. augustine in now time.


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## lucas287 (Jun 3, 2018)

Keeping St. Aug out of bermuda isn't that hard. Just trench a line and edge it up when you trim. It doesn't have rhizomes, only stolons. Pretty easy to keep from spreading where you don't want it. BUT, the bermuda will still send rhizomes underneath and try duking it out.

3 weeks ago today i sodded Celebration in the shady part of my backyard. Might be the best compromise to foot traffic/wear tolerance/pee recovery/mild shade tolerance/aggressive/etc.


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## ktgrok (May 25, 2019)

Celebration is the variety I was looking at, for bermuda. I figured anything meant for sports fields was probably what I wanted, lol. Just wondering if it was going to look like crap most of the time, from pee spots.


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## FlaDave (Jul 10, 2018)

You could just Roundup along the fence every few weeks to keep them separated. I do this so I don't have to weedwack along the fence. Works well.


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## TalonII (Jul 23, 2019)

I've got a boxer/rotty mix that can nuke any living plant with one raise of his leg. I noticed the first brown spot in the Bermuda I have been trying to get to spread(I had been making him go in the front yard instead of the back).

Also, after a year in my house in Florida, he had basically killed all the centipede in our backyard.

He will also nuke my in-laws st. Aug and each time it dies, Bermuda starts popping up in its place.


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## Sublime (Jun 15, 2019)

I just don't let my dog pee on my front lawn. My backyard I couldn't care less about.

And when my dog does go on my front yard, I get the hose and water that spot. It dilutes it enough to not leave any spots.


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## Darth_V8r (Jul 18, 2019)

The tifblair centipede in my yard is the most pee resistant stuff in my yard, not counting crabgrass, which is immune to nuclear disasters. Might be worth trying since it is very tolerant of acids


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