They vs it when talking about "your dog" [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Would you call your spouse "it"–well, you might if you didn't get along–but generally speaking you'll use the most appropriate pronoun for that person's gender.

Likewise, dog owners refer to their pets with names, terms of endearment or gendered pronouns (he, she).

If we didn't know the sex of a dog, we can use the neutral pronoun "it", but its owner always knows, and for many owners, their pets are permanent members of the family.

By using the singular "they" people are still including a dog, regardless of its sex, as a member of the family household. "They" sounds more "humane" and friendlier than "it".

Solution 2:

Singular they can be a contentious topic, but people use it all the time in conversation.

I understand that one would expect singular they only to apply to people, and so animals would be referred to with it, but that's not how people treat their pets. People have anthropomorphised their pets for a very long time (see here for more insight), referring to them as "he" or "she", not "it". So it only makes sense then that when the gender is indeterminate they refer to their pets with they.

So, "Your dog gets some kind of reward when they bark." is correct.