We had real grass and then we got a dog. He turned it into an absolute mud bath and no matter what we did, it would not grow. His wee would puddle on it and wouldn't drain. Because of this, our toddler couldn't play outside.
We got artificial grass and it's an absolute game changer. His wee doesn't puddle and it actually drains now the mud has been turfed up etc. It doesn't smell as it gets cleaned weekly.
We're not intolerable of mud either. Our toddler is the one who goes to park and comes back absolutely filthy! However, letting her play in mud that was drowning in dog wee was not what we wanted.