Lumpy lawn dilemma

My husband and I purchased a lovely 90 some year old home which had an unfortunately very neglected back yard. Then to spice things up a bit we added a puppy with a propensity towards digging to that yard. The puppy has now grown into a much more well behaved dog, but we are left with a yard that is booby trapped with ankle twisting holes and generally quite lumpy. We have grand plans to remove a lot of the over grown bushes, add a patio, and develop a more organic feel to the yard, but it seems to me incredibly silly and wasteful to tear up the whole yard in order to smooth out the lumpiness. I wonder if any of you have any experience or suggestions for repairing the doggy damage?

I should also mention we tried to fill in the holes as they were dug, but that only made them more enticing to the puppy, therefore now they are overgrown with grass and are fairly well camouflaged!

Welcome to Permies, Stephanie!

I don't have doggy damage, I have chicken damage. I move their tractor over the lawn and find that they have left some ankle-breaker type divots where they like to take a dust bath. Here's what I do: (1) fill the hole with wood chips and level it out with the leaf rake. (2) Get a sack of the cheapest topsoil you can find and mix it up with grass seed, dandelion heads, alfalfa seed, clover, etc. (3) Cover the places with exposed wood chips with 1" or so of the topsoil/seed mix. Don't worry that it is a little high, it will settle after a few weeks.