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Can "Dog Rocks" stop dogs from staining my lawn?

“Dog Rocks” are supposed to solve the problem of grass dying from dog pee. Urine contains a variety of nitrogen compounds, mostly metabolites of protein in food. These are effective fertilizers, but in the case of urine, they supply too much nitrogen relative to other nutrients and grass suffers the consequences. Drinking water also contains naturally occurring nitrates that can eventually show up in the urine.

This is where “Dog Rocks” come in. When placed in the pet’s drinking water, they supposedly reduce the problem of yellow grass by removing nitrates. These rocks are said to be special, permeated with pores that trap nitrates. But the promoters of this product offer no evidence for their claims. There are no studies that show that nitrates in drinking water make a significant contribution to the nitrogen compounds in urine, or that these rocks can actually remove nitrates from water.

Even if the rocks removed nitrates, for which there is no evidence, the change in the nitrate concentration in the urine would be insignificant. Basically, there is no theoretical reason to think that Dog Rocks should work and there is no practical evidence that they do. Dog Rocks don’t rock.


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