# Crabgrass-sniffing dogs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crabgrass-sniffing-dogs/10351>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 14, 2000, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crabgrass-sniffing-dogs/10351 "2000-04-14T16:30:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crabgrass-sniffing-dogs/10351/1 "2000-04-14T16:30:00Z")

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## You’ve seen dogs on the news that were trained to sniff out drugs and bombs. We also know dogs can be trained to pee in specific places. There are even tales of urban paper-trained dogs chasing a newspaper down a windy street to pee on it. Also, the urine of some dogs can be mighty hard on a lawn. So… Has anyone successfully trained a dog to identify, and pee on, crabgrass? It would seem to be a logical combination of a dog’s olfactory talents and urinary deadliness.

AskNott

"Measure twice, cut once. Dang! Measure again, cut again.

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**Author:** ![Flat\_U.Lance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90db22/32.png) [@Flat\_U.Lance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flat_U.Lance)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crabgrass-sniffing-dogs/10351/2 "2000-04-14T18:04:00Z")

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You could carry the idea of paper training one step further. Move the papers closer and closer to the door, then outside, then on the crabgrass, then gradually reduce the area of the paper until the dog is pissing on the crabgrass.

If you don’t like brown spots on the lawn, I have heard that feeding your dog tomato juice will solve the problem. I haven’t tried it; I like brown spots.