DId you use a grass seed designed for shade in your area? Generic grass seed (an often turf) is generally designed to do reasonably well in sun, shade, north, south, acidic and alkaline soil. If yours is on the edge of too many of those ranges, as in very shade, very acidic, very north, there might be a lot of grasses in the mix that don't like your conditions.

What does "failed" mean? You got a less-than-perfect lawn? You had some bare patches or you had mostly bare ground?

DId you keep the lawn well-watered and the dogs off of it when establishing the lawn? The dogs would have had to stay off for a solid month or more when starting with seed.

Get a soil test. Most states have an extension service that does this. They generally cost $25 - $30. You want your state because the analyst is likely to give some useful advice on growing grass in your area.

Check for grubs.

By failed, bare ground or weeds the following season. I tried a bunch of different seed types either for seeding or overseeing. Yes, I watered regularly and no, the dogs weren't on the grass for aban extended period of time. For all of the attempts, it was with different dogs who only went to the bathroom in aaa small section separate from the rest of the yard. With our current dogs, I haven't done anything with the grass.

Happy to try grass again based oonon suggestions but was also interested in non grass answers

The key is in this statement: "my backyard is heavily shaded". Heavy shade and a healthy lawn are not compatible. There are no types of turf grass seeds that will thrive in much more than partial or dappled shade. Combine that with root competition from the oaks (hogging water and nutrients) and dog activity, it is not really surprising the lawn has suffered/

I'm sure there are some groundcovers that could work but we need to know where you are located to make any reasonable suggestions.

Maryland. My apologies

You can limb up your oaks. A tree service will thin or remove lower branches, which might give your yard more sun.

Some possible groundcovers are partridge berry (Mitchella repens), Japanese pachysandra, star jasmine, creeping raspberry (Rubus calycinoides) or plantain leaved pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia). If you can irrigate the area to keep the soil relatively moist, you can probably expand this list :-)

Dog friendly please

There is no groundcover other than grass than dogs can run around on and not destroy. I'm talking constant running around. Many groundcovers can handle occasional walking on by man or dog, but not constant. Perhaps you should just mulch those areas.

Are you able to post a picture? I like the idea of ground covers as a transition from a shade garden to the lawn which is only in the sunnier parts of the yard. The ground cover would serve as a sort of living border designation the play area for the pups from the shade garden under the trees.

This is the idea, but you would need different selections along the edge (a good list was posted by garden gal), as the hosta leaves would break with dogs at play.

" Dog friendly please "

All of the groundcovers I suggested are "dog friendly" in that they are nontoxic if chewed or eaten. And they are all evergreen or have a year round presence. But as noted, they do not hold up well to constant foot traffic from either dogs or humans. No living groundcover does, even turf grass! As noted, a mulched area for their play and potty activities would make better sense.

@gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) My apologies, I Googled all of your suggestions and I thought one of them had a result that said toxic but could be wrong. I did like some of them.

To clarify, traffic is not constantconstant. I would be surprised if the dogs were out there for a combined total that is longer than 2 hours a day.

The problem with mulch is my house had a termite issue that was fixed many years ago and mulching more than I already have is invited the possibility. That much stone is ugly.

I cannot get the whole yard but here is the current state. The dogs will be away for training for two months so I am about to have a window to grow something.

To be clear, the dogs are not the issue with the cover. It is too much shade, too many trees and likely, substandard soil. This plus, my lack of a green thumb and grass type choices before I understood shade/

I would give up with an idea with lush landscape

" I would give up with an idea with lush landscape" This answer is rather depressing.

The second picture is close to the general plan I have. The space inside the green bushes there is actually a concrete patio and the floating deck I intend to put in is pretty much where you have it. The bushes to the left, which only a little can be see; the thought was to try and transplant them to the border the retaining wall and back of the fence where the deck is in the picture (or some other bush/plant section).

Where sun is, and where I think grass will actually grow is from the left side of the shed over to the far right. To the far left (out of shot) is where the yard has a serious grade and that is where I was thinking of putting @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) suggestions. The retaining wall is to be just left of the tree in the picture to the far left. It would be backfilled and then a lot of top soil so any seed or plants actually don't just run out of the yard with the first good rain.