Don’t get mad at Rover because his odor stinks. He needs to pee, and the backyard is his his toilet. It is annoying, however, when stray cats and dogs come into your yard and stake their claim, peeing and spraying with abandon. To lessen the scents and make your yard less attractive to outsiders who are quick to cover your pet’s handiwork with their own, follow these simple steps to get your yard smelling fresh and green again instead of smelling like pee pee.
Try vinegar and warm water in a spray bottle, or even better you can buy a spray container that attaches to your hose and you can fill it with whatever you’d like and when you hose your yard the liquid in the bottle will spray with the water from the hose at the same time. This is great for larger peed on areas or if your whole yard smells like a toilet. The vinegar won’t harm your grass (unfortunately it won’t harm your weeds either) and as soon as the vinegar dries it has no scent. The strong acid in vinegar neutralizes the urine scent. For smaller pee smelling areas like tree trunks or the side of your house, warm water and vinegar (equal parts) sprayed directly to the site will get rid of the odor and the color.
To keep cats from spraying in your yard, apply a citrus-smelling water (like lemon juice in water) to your yard and garden. Cats don’t like citrus scents and will avoid areas that smell of citrus. The lemon juice/water mixture can also be applied all over your yard (1 part lemon juice to 2 parts water) to eradicate pet odors and urine smells and wash away the yellow stains left behind. Once again, buying a spray bottle that can be attached to your garden hose and filling the bottle either with lemon juice or vinegar is a great way to get rid of odors.
You can also spray the affected areas with lemon or orange-scented (or lavender) Dawn dish soap in a spray bottle. The yard will smell fresh and keep fleas and ticks out of your yard as well, keeping both cats and bloodsuckers from affecting your pets in their own yard. An added bonus- dish soap (a few tablespoons to a full spray bottle of water) is a great fertilizer for your grass and garden, so spray away.
When your yard smells less like pet urine, it also keeps other animals out of your yard to mark their own territory as they are not drawn by the preexisting odors. So regularly spraying your yard to keep it fresh will keep other animals from putting in their own efforts to your pet’s markings.
If your pet urine is suddenly killing grass or is stronger than normal, take them to a vet to rule out urinary or kidney issues, as stronger urine can be a sign of health problems. Otherwise, by spraying your yard every now and then with home products can keep your yard smelling fresh.
