Maybe look for native grass as lawn, alternative to the standard fescue,rye, whatever it is. But if dog and foot traffic beats up your lawn now, will natives grass do any better?
Here's a natural low maintenance partly sunny yard in your county this time of year with very little foot traffic now. We mow, might lime, might fertilize once.. no herbicides or pesticides.
Crabgrass will die after frost, looks pretty sad until spring, then anything green comes up.
That link is really an excellent discussion and resource.
