Be sure your landlord approves of what you plan.

I'm not sure of a groundcover which could take dog play. Maybe someone else will offer a suggestion. How about rehabilitating the lawn with some fertilizer and re-seeding the bare section?

I seriously doubt pea gravel would be comfortable on a dog's feet. Have you ever tried to walk on it barefoot? It hurts. Decomposed granite might work, but it also might stick on the dog's fur and track into the house. Ditto for mulch or bark.

Good luck with your project.

I'd leave the grass. It will be best for your dog. Dymondia doesn't hold up to dog urine, and it's the wrong time to plant anything but tropicals--the summer heat will soon be here. Just take as good care of the grass as you can.

The best dog friendly replacement for turf is artificial turf. I'd keep the turf if they aren't digging it up.

Can't afford artificial turf but decided to attempt to rehab the lawn...going to the nursery tomorrow to get fertilizer and seed. Wish me luck!

There are types of grass that last better with dogs. Usually they are labeled as "tough"

Sounds like a good plan. Take that picture so you can show a nurseryman what you are wanting to do. You'll have to work up some way to keep the pups off the reseeded area until its grown enough to tolerate dog play.

One thing to reduce urine burns on the lawn is to keep a watering can of water handy--when Mr. or Mrs. Dog does some significant watering especially first thing in the morning, follow up on the spot with a big hit of water to dilute the contribution. Female dog output is more concentrated and burns more.

I was advised to use a grass that spreads easily so it can fill in the inevitable weak spots that dogs make. It was great advice.

So the gal at Armstrong recommended St. Augustine, which I had pretty much decided on based on my research. We're going to buy sod and cut it into plugs to plant, throughout, as she recommended. We've got more time than money so this is affordable although it'll take a while to grow in and a few years to push everything else out.

I think that's a good choice given the shade you have in parts of the yard. Once it's established the dogs won't harm it much. The only 2 big drawbacks for SA are first, it's pretty coarse, not very comfortable on bare feet or for laying down on, second it can build up a thick layer of thatch over the years so regular dethatching helps to keep it looking good.

We've had St. Augustine for decades. It's a good time to plant St. Augustine as it's getting ready to grow fast. In my opinion, the smaller, closer together plugs will cover faster, but that's more work than big plugs farther apart. Maybe get a high school student to help for a couple hours?? Glad you got it settled and have a plan.

St. Augustine is a good choice.

Yeah, don't plant under the lime tree, just get lots of compost and put it 2-4 inches thick out just past the drip line. You can get it free in the county of LA and elsewhere.

I'd suggest CA native wildflowers along the strip under the windows - coreopsis, clarkia, penstemon, poppies, primrose, .... - and then creating similar 18" wide garden beds along the bare brick walls to soften them with flowering or fruiting vines -- grape, passion flower, thunbergia, morning glory, jasmine, ....I can see your neighbor already has bougenvilla and trumpet vine trailing off the wall behind your citrus.

This gives your dog 90% of the grass, which I would leave unwatered and untouched for poochie parties as it naturally browns out during summer. The fading but water-wise brown lawn won't be that noticable if the walls are full of color and then doggy brown spots don't stand out, saving you lots of time messing with the least interesting plant, the grass, which is never going to look better than just okay witrh that much compaction and use.

UPDATE: I took all of your advice to heart and ended up fertilizing and seeding with Bermuda seeds. I put down a seed starter mat, that we happen to have, over the bare patches and it seems to be working its magic under there. I also created a temp barrier to keep the dogs out. Looking good so far! The grass behind the tress is patchy, I might have to throw some shade loving seed (what?!) over there. I don't mind the patchwork lawn, as long as it's green (blueish too!) and full and thick. I'm sure my next water bill is going to blow up but whatever. I also planted a shade-friendly flower seed mix in the border, maybe I'll do the same by the wall under the tree and bougainvillea eventually. Thanks everyone!

Bermuda is tough stuff. Good job. It doesn't use a lot of water once it is established.

We just put down hybrid Bermuda, Greg Norman 1. It's been only about a month and it is super green and seems really durable. I've been trying to keep my husky from peering on which had been impossible. The grass seems really durable and must recover quick because I don't see burned spots. We are just cutting back to one watering a week. We will see how it goes. So far we happy with it. We were warned that it can be pretty invasive and it's hard to change your mind and take it out. We were fine with that because our options were limited with the two pepper trees it's under---it's actually growing under those and I can't tell you how many people told us "you can't grow anything under pepper trees!" GL!

I would ditch the rocks- save those for your cactus. Put up a nice mini picket wood fence around the tree..paint it brown. THEN, maybe put wood lattice against the cement block fence,and plant vines. Clematis,Or Passion flowers...no need to cover every inch of wall..you want to just break up the monotany.

And with maybe some hanging plants(-drilled into the concrete, iron baskets),leaves plenty of room for the dogs to play. Everybody wins.