Unfortunately, a lush lawn and heavy dog activity are pretty incompatible :-) You can block off the area then reseed as necessary and get a new lawn established but it is only a matter of time before it will also be trashed or worn down.

You either need a defined area the dogs will be restricted to or come up wth an alternative approach.

It does depend on the number and size of dogs, how often and long they're out there, and so on... We have two, small, put out to go to the bathroom, and no problems with lawn quality and no burn or wear issues anywhere.

Dogs that spend more time outside, are larger, and run will cause far more issues and may even make a good lawn completely impossible. In that case, another ground cover might be a better idea, but choose something that won't attract bees--so clover is definitely out (as well as not being particularly tolerant of heavy wear itself).

If you want to try, block off the area and seed and bring in the lawn until it's fully mature, at least until the fourth or fifth mow. Now's not really the season to do that, so I'd say wait until late summer (mid-August) to start. By full freeze, you might be able to open it up to the dogs, although I might wait until spring and give the grass the whole winter stress-free to sleep without damage (young grass doesn't winter as easily as established grass does).

At that point, it's definitely established.

I have a dog as well :-) But he is small, there is just one of him and nothing he does outside on the lawn constitutes "high traffic' or 'heavy activity'. OTOH, I design for homeowners who do have large, boisterous and multiple dogs so very aware of how much damage they can do. Often we do dedicated dog runs where they can play and romp to their hearts' content without concern for a lawn. Any lawn areas are for the homeowners' benefit and very controlled dog visitation :-)

If you live in the PNW, then go for it. If you live somewhere else, then hold up. Where do you live, and what kind of grass are you having problems with? If you are in the south, that's one thing. If you're not in the heat, then you might need more suggestions.

I live in West Virginia. I honestly don’t know what type of grass is in my yard. Basically I built a patio and used the excess dirt to level the ground around my patio and used Scott’s EZ seed to plant grass in those spots initially. However, I think I took the fence down too soon last year and let my dogs ruin it. I used that same seed in my front yard and it looks great, but it's has no disruption. I was thinking that if I just kept it blocked off longer this time, it would actually work. It’s not a huge spot and I used it in other bald spots of my backyard and it worked great there too. Any other suggestions would be great though.

You need to use a grass seed that has mostly Kentucky blue or in it. I live in Iowa which is zone 5 and West Virginia is zone 5a and Kentucky blue is what is used here.

Avoid seed mixes that have a high percentage of rye grass and fillers. Rye grass is an annual grass that will germinate fast and then die.

You might investigate buffalo grass. Big bonus is that it only grows to a certain height, so you don't have to mow it. The trick was in a grass is going to be keeping the dogs off of it until it gets formally established.

If the rest of the lawn is ok, consider sod, it’s a quick fix, establishes quickly and should be able to stand up to some traffic. We had the same situation here (3 large dogs that run like maniacs) and that worked out ok.