If its not a huge area, sod would be best for an area thats going to get immediate traffic. Kentucky blue is pretty wear tolerant , and will fill in dead spots ( urine spots) ......albeit slowly. If seed is your choice, Perennial rye is the quickest to establish, and has a blue grass like appearance. There are also seed blends that have both blue&rye together. Tall fescue is also quick to establish, and there are new types that have a little bit of lateral spread - similar to bluegrass.

Big Tip: spring is not the time to seed a new lawn. Sod will work fine, but when you water properly to sprout grass seed, you are also watering properly to sprout crabgrass seed and other summer annual weeds. If you can simply live with weeds for the summer, fall would be a better time to reseed.

If you could further divide the yard then you could put the dogs on one side and work on the other. Then switch it around when the new grass comes in.

If you have shade and playful dogs, then you can't have a lawn. My suggestion for those areas is to use deep mulch. Deep means 5 inches or much more. Chipped trees from a tree trimming contractor make an excellent free mulch.

Thanks for the help I could live with the weeds and crab grass for the summer. I'm really leaning towards going with sod but I am yet decided. There is maybe a hour worth of shade from two oaks on my neighbors side that's all otherwise it's direct sun all day. I'm also very drawn to the idea of sod being a instant upgrade over the mess I'm in now. If the lawn was taken care of before I bought the house I would not have a problem seeding here and there throughout the years. Before I shell out the money for sod I really need to get my soil analysis hoping that it will support and sustain sod.

But I do have a question how tough is sod that is just laid I have no experience with it is it hearty or will it be short lived due to traffic I can limit the dogs time out on it if I have to. Also a big thing is the dog urine has had little effect on the existing grass. It's mostly a situation of starting with a half dirt back yard what the previous owners did to have it in this condition I'm not sure neglect would be my guess

Sod can handle quite a bit of abuse, but if possible the traffic should be on the light side for the first month. The sod type that will give you deep root system quicker than the others, would be Tall fescue. Most sod farms in the northeast also carry sod with Tall fescue and bluegrass mixed......which gives a tighter knitted turf that handles traffic better- and roots deeper compared to bluegrass used alone. Also, as i stated in my first post, there are now Tall fescue types that have lateral spread to them, but not all sod farms carry that type yet. They are called- Tall fescue RTF types . They have a tighter knitted turf -similar to tall fescue /blue mix..........either sod type will give you good performance.