Phased, I'm not a fungus expert. I'm a solutions expert. Corn meal seems to work on all the popular diseases except red thread, rust, and dog barf (yes, it's a type of fungus). I don't know why those seem to be immune. Dog barf goes away with a water hose, so that's the only treatment you need. Some diseases go away with shampoo just washing the disease microbes off the blades of grass. gotsqueeze, it's way too late to add seed for this season. But I like your thinking the problem through. I agree that the daily water needed for new seed might be a problem. Certainly if you were watering too long to the point of soggy soil it would be a problem.

Ky31 doesn't spread by rhizomes or stolons, but it does spread by tillars. The tillars will eventually become independent of the main grass plant and then produce tillars of their own. I just think of tillars as short rhizomes. Again, KY31 will handle your dogs abuse. My female dog does urinate in the grass and it does damage it as expected, but it recovers quite well. in fact, it's proving almost impossible for me to kill. When I first planted KY31, I didn't know anything about lawn care. It was my first home and when I moved in, the back yard was basically all mud. I picked Ky31 because it was the cheapest. After having such great success, and learning more about lawn care and turf, I've become somewhat of a lawn care nut. I renovated my front lawn (that was mostly ryegrass and weeds) with Kentucky Bluegrass and Turf Type Tall Fescue. That looks amazing in comparison to my backyard KY31. Late summer and early fall, I tried torturing the KY31 backyard. Repeated scalping during the heat, not watering in the heat of summer, rough rough raking with a detaching rake and shovel, etc. this was in preparation to overseed Titan RX, an improved variety of tall fescue. after the overseeding on top of the overly abused KY31... The KY31 has survived. Hardly any of the Titan RX is present in the lawn. the seedlings were all choked out of existence. im serious, I think KY31 will survive a nuclear apocalypse.

Samo? Is that acceptable speech in Santa Monica? I'm kind of cringing. I also cringe at PV (Palos Verdes), and a little at Frisco, Sacto, San Berdoo, and Vegas. Cali. I really cringe at that. Assuming the grass is suited to the location, all grasses need the same amount of water per week mostly depending on temperature. This is why Marathon is not good in the desert; it's not suited to the location. In the desert Marathon needs water every other day or so in the heat of summer. But in Samo you often have trouble getting out of the 70s in the summer, so watering would be a rare event. We talk about deep and infrequent watering for lawns. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. If your soil cannot absorb an inch in one sitting, we have ways of fixing that. One inch can be measured with tuna or cat food cans placed around the yard. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That will be your permanent watering time from now on. Always water a full inch (more or less - use this as a start point). As for frequency, this is the key. With temps lower than 70 degrees F, deep water once per month to keep the soil microbes healthy. For temps between 70 and 80, deep water once every 3 weeks. Between 80 and 90 water once every 2 weeks. Between 90 and 100, water once per week. Yes, I realize that every single lawn sprinkler guy in SoCal and FL, for that matter, highly recommends watering every day. That is complete BS. Your parents probably did it. Your neighbors do it. It's wrong. Deep and infrequent wins every time. Tif 419 is the go-to bermuda hybrid all across the county. It used to be extremely expensive, but now days it is the cheap one due to supply and demand. It comes in rolls of sod. You flatten the soil surface, place it down, roll over it with a water filled roller (rented), and start watering. At first you won't do deep and infrequent. You'll do the hyper opposite by watering 3x per day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) very lightly (5 to 10 minutes). You only need to moisten the roots and the surface of the underlying soil. If it gets squishy, that's waaaaaay too much water. Bermuda should knit to the soil in 2 weeks. Then you can back off on the frequency and ease your way up on the duration. Bermuda is not a low maintenance lawn IF you want it to look really nice. If you want it to look that good, then it needs to be mowed 2-3x per week and fertilized heavily every 6 to 8 weeks. If you want that look and feel, I would investigate UC Verde. Call some local nurseries and ask if they sell it. If you find one that does, ask if you can see some installations. Come to think of it, you might visit the Getty Museum and see what grass they have. I'm guessing Marathon, but don't know. St Augustine is the lowest maintenance UNLESS it gets diseased from the humidity and dew.

You're probably going to get rain towards the end of the month. With that and the January/Feb rains, you shouldn't need to water it. The reason to water in the winter is more for soil health than grass health. I think the new puppy pushed this lawn over the edge. It is not unusual for us to see posts asking for help with a lawn in full shade, two active dogs, active children, and desert conditions. Without the dog you might have had a chance, but dogs do have to go out and play every now and then. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but if you can keep the dog off of it for a couple weeks, you might try annual ryegrass seed just to have something to keep the mud down for the winter. Ryegrass does not spread like bermuda or St Augustine, so if the dog tears it up, it will not repair itself. I see some grass in your picture to the bottom. Is that bermuda? If so you're going to be battling that in the spring. It might awaken before the St Augustine does. Just keep the mower set high and it should go back to invisible again. If you're looking for blessings to count, you don't have any thatch!