Common Misconceptions About Dog Feces and Fertilizing our Lawns

Contrary to popular belief, dog poop is not good for your lawn. The idea that dog feces act as a natural fertilizer is a commonly held misconception stemming from the use of cattle manure as a lawn fertilizer. Dog waste (feces and urine) actually are very harmful to your lawn, especially in concentrated amounts.

The owner of three dogs, I can personally attest to dog waste being harmful to lawns.

While it is true that feces (poop/manure) is often used as a type of fertilizer, specific types of feces are not used.

Poop is poop, right? Wrong.

At least not the way it comes out of the animal au natural.

Whether or not a specific type of poop is beneficial to plants depends mainly on the pooper's diet. So, generally speaking, for feces to make a good plant fertilizer it has to contain digested plant matter. That's why cow manure (herbivore) makes an excellent plant fertilizer, while dog poop (carnivore) doesn't work so well.

Dog feces can be used as fertilizer (so can pig poop, people poop, pretty much any poop) just not straight from the beast.

In order for feces from a carnivorous animal to be used as fertilizer, it has to be composted with other materials. When something is turned into compost it is mixed with other natural materials, (I.E. old grass clippings, broken down weeds, egg shells, etc.) and allowed to break down over time.

Uncomposted dog feces isn't the only hazard to your yard that comes from our four legged friends. Dog urine is also harmful to lawns, though only in concentrated doses.

Lawn damage from dog urine is characterized by dead brown spots in the yard. These spots look very similar to "burnt" spots caused by over fertilizing. About two summers ago I started noticing these crop circle popping up in my backyard. After counting out extra terrestrials as their cause I called around to a few local landscaping companies.

The first question from all of them was, "do you own any large dogs?"

At the time I did indeed (and still do) own a large dog, a particularly gigantic black Labrador mix named Hurley to be specific.

According to all of the landscapers, dog urine frequently is the cause for dead patches in lawns. The reason being that dog urine is full of salts and nitrogen based chemicals. When concentrated in a small area, the salts pull water from the grass, causing the burnt out dead spots.

Frequently watering your yard (specifically paying attention to the places that have received specific attention from your four legged friend) will generally clear up and prevent the dead spots from occurring.

If dogs are man's best friend, then they must be one of your lawn's worst enemies. In another of my articles I outline steps to treating another common dog-related cause for dead grass, high dog traffic.