well - here might be another option - one I finally going to put in this weekend …
http://www1.zoysiafarms.com/allabout.jsp
have similar problems with dogs and live at the lake and don't want to use fertilizer nor weed killer for water quality reasons and on the other hand I consider water a precious resource so I never water the lawn despite having a sprinkler system. Goes dormant in summer most of the times and comes back - so normally not a big issue except dog pee - that will just kill it at that point … So was looking at this for a few years but wanted to get house done first before starting with outside. Still not there but got my 2 boxes of grass plugs yesterday and will put them in this weekend.
will report back but the cost of sod (and here it's usually Kentucky blue grass - looks nice but needs water - lots of it) is prohibitive and having a grass which repairs itself sounds pretty good to me. Not having to mow it every week is even better