If you’ve owned a dog, you’re likely familiar with the yellow patches of grass they leave in the wake of their favorite potty spot.
This is caused by the nitrogen compounds in dog urine, which can burn the grass.
However, as the movement to ‘rewild’ lawns and gardens has folks ditching traditional turf grass for native plants, you may begin to see another landscaping feature designed with your dog in mind.
“We put those rocks there. And when dogs are walking down, their eyes can see this thing, and when they get closer, they’re like, ‘Oh, Larry peed there. Bob peed there. I gotta pee there,’” Andy Smerczak-Zorza of Chicago’s Ravenswood Neighborhood Association explained in a now-viral Instagram Reel.
“We found that it keeps, like, 90% of dogs out of your garden.”
Those rocks Smerczak-Zorza speaks of are colloquially called “pee-pee rocks,” and are meant to mimic a fire hydrant for dogs who like to mark their territory on a walk.
Dog urine can damage native plants by causing plant cells to lose water or contribute to a higher concentration of chemicals in the soil where the dog urinates.
Thus, providing dogs with another alternative easily redirects them away from those vital native plants and grasses, without forcing them to hold it.
Plus, pee-pee rocks are a lot more aesthetically pleasing than other alternatives.
“Rather than putting up a massive wall or fence, this just makes it kind of smart and easy,” Smerczak-Zorza continued in a video that has now been viewed over a million times.
“So if you get a big rock, put them on the corners of your garden in the city. It'll keep a lot of dogs out. It won’t keep them all out, but they’ll keep a lot of them out.”
Some tips for maximizing the impact of a pee-pee rock? Choose one that has a more vertical shape, resembling a tree, pole, or fire hydrant that a dog may naturally be drawn to.
You can also place them in all of the accessible corners of your lawn or garden, which may inspire a dog to mark the boundaries of its ‘territory.’
Lastly, find a leader of the pack to christen the pee-pee rock first, which will signal to other dogs — both male and female — that this is an ideal spot to leave their mark.
On the Ravenswood Neighborhood Association’s post, many shared their own anecdotal evidence of the pee-pee rock’s success.
“In my neighborhood in Portland, someone installed a couple ‘pee rocks’ recently,” one commenter wrote. “And it seems to be working.”
“We have a pee rock in our yard,” another added. “This made so much sense… and we observed this to be totally true.”
Someone called it an “intentionally placed public restroom” that “prevents property damage,” and another summed it up perfectly, a la “Field of Dreams.”
“If you place it,” the commenter wrote, “they will pee.”
