I hesitated to reply because of the high traffic part of the question. Also, my reasons for going with alternatives are more for the water saving. The shady part votes against the usual water guzzling first choice for Utah of KBG and also precludes the warm season natives like grama and buffalo grass. Fine fescues will do well in shade. Sheep fescue will live (and maybe even stay green) with little or no water on the Wasatch front. It's fairly wear tolerant but will probably not stand up to two large dogs. Unfortunately, it's a bunch grass, so if it dies, it fills in only by tillering. Creeping red fescue will need more water, but will spread, although I'm not sure how it will do with the dogs. Streambank and Western wheatgrasses are both rhizomatous, so they'll spread to fill in bare spots, at least to an extent. They're both very drought tolerant and will live with no irrigation water but will need to be watered several times a summer to stay green (I'm not sure how often yet, but I'm hoping to get down to watering 2-3 times a year). I think Streambank is more shade tolerant. It's best to seed in the fall, but you can probably put seed down now (if your lawn isn't snow covered) for a dormant seeding. I bought some Streambank wheatgrass from Mountain Valley seeds and my western from Round Butte Seeds and Southwest Seeds. A couple of other local options are Granite Seed and Biograss sod farms. Crested wheatgrass gets a lot of play as a lawn alternative, but I'm not a fan. Most varieties are bunch grasses, but a few newer ones (Ephraim, Roadcrest) will spread via rhizomes. It will live with no additional water, but the way it deals with lack of water is to go in and out of dormancy very readily. If you get it established and then walk by while thinking of a sunny day, it will go dormant. If you then spit in the street near it, it will spring back (I'm exaggerating, but not by a lot).

I had that problem when we moved in into this previous used house, a hight traffic area were everyone cuts to get to the front door its was awfull, we tried seeds no result, bcs people kept walking over it, after a year I decided just to water the bear part in the mornings or evenings when I knew people weren't coming, and slightly sprinkle the rest, I also pulled some of the grown grass from other parts of the lawn and planted a few pices, well that worked for me and that still a traffic area, but I keep watering more the path than the other part of the lawn, and my neighbor accross the st told me the people that reside here before could never get the grass to grow, since I live in a budget that worked for me, hopefully I gv you an idea on what to do now if you have the money I seen on tv theres some kind of grass that even grows on cement good luck to you.

Depending on where you are in Oregon, you might try some other alternative ground covers. In milder climates, and in areas with light traffic, you might try Blue Star Creeper (Isotoma fluviatilis, also known as Pratia pedunculata or Laurentia fluviatilis). I have a half-shaded concrete patio that used to have strips of wood between the concrete slabs. The wood rotted out and I replaced it with Isotoma. Now I have tiny little blue flowers between the concrete. It really makes the patio look a lot more inviting. In shady areas, there's Irish or Scotch moss (Sagina subulata). You could also grow baby's tears (Soleirolia soleirolii, also known as Helxine soleirolii). I've also heard of people using one of the creeping mints, like creeping Thyme or creeping Basil in areas with light traffic and sun. These creeping varieties have very tiny leaves. When they get walked on, they release their wonderful fragrance. The best thing to do is go to Google and do a search on the phrase, "lawn alternative". You'll find lots and lots of information.

We had to put in a new driveway a few years ago and we had the guy just scrape the top off the whole front yard while he was at it. I did use roundup in the back but the grass there was scraggly and it was pretty easy. I do not condone the use of herbicides for the most part either. We did the back in late August and got it all in one application (no dogs, cats or kids here) during a non rainy period so it wouldn't wash down. I wouldn't have tried it in front yard where it was thick and drains off into a stream in the park down the block. Partly my beds just kept getting bigger and bigger so the lawn size had really shrunk anyway. The stuff is a chore to dig out, I always did it in rows and tediously shook it out with each shovelful. The only time I like bermuda is when its dormant in winter and light cream colored. I like it OK in dry summers when left to go dormant too. My understanding is that this characteristic was what made it popular way back when before the day of sprinkler systems and constant watering people do now. Otherwise, I consider it one of the ugliest worst, most offensive weeds in America. I am constantly on it to keep it from invading my yard from the west and east lawns. There are some new no mow lawn seed mixes available online. They are supposed to perform very well and are low water users, better than buffalo grass but still, you have to get rid of the bermuda first. Just joking here but crabgrass is a good way to choke it out. Weed vs Weed.