Dogs need to be trained. You’ll only need to tell them to go until they learn to go to the bathroom outside, at which point they’ll go by themselves.
Cats & dogs do have what I consider a bug in that they tend not to be able to find things on another floor or the other side of a large lot. So make sure you’ve put bowls and litter boxes near where they spend the most time. If you’re on a computer, I believe there’s a mod to improve this called Pets Can Find Pet Stuff.
I also consider how long it takes to walk the dog in most neighborhoods to be a bug - seriously, sometimes a “short” walk is literally all day and the sim, dog, or both are exhausted and starving by the time they get home. If you give the dog the “independent” trait you can choose to “send outside” and they’ll walk themselves. Again, if you play on a computer, there’s also a variety of different mods - dog walkers, walking multiple dogs, allowing kids to walk dogs, etc.
As for farm chores… as a country girl, yup, you have to do chores every day. 😉
If you have Horse Ranch, you can hire a ranch hand. Even if you don’t, base game allows for hiring a gardener and/or maid. But if you don’t have too many plants you can generally care for them yourself - you’ll get faster as gardening skill levels up. Also, once the plants are healthier, it’s not the end of the world if you leave them buggy/dry/full of weeds for one day. Just don’t let it go too long.
Pet fears are unfortunate. There is, once again, a mod if you play on computer that allows you to help a pet get over a fear, but otherwise it’s best to just rearrange to keep them away from things they hate. Scared of the computer? Put it inside a little office and lock the door to pets. Scared of the stove? Make sure the kitchen is off to one side and ideally closed off. Scared of a fireplace? Close it off or remove it. 🤷🏼♀️
Not everyone uses mods though. Especially for laptop users because mods crash the whole system 9times out of 10.
