Primal Companion as Guard (2024)

I am wondering how the 2024 Primal Companion would work as a sentry or "watch dog." There are two scenarios I had in mind:

First scenario - you are out in the wilderness and ask your primal companion to keep watch while you sleep. Technically, you are unconscious while you sleep, so I think they could make an initial attack on an intruder if they thought it necessary, as well as act to alert you to wake up.

Second scenario. You are staying at the inn in the city and need to take care of some business in town. Rather than take all your equipment and gold with you, you leave it locked in your room, and your Primal Companion stays to guard it (also, he hates the city and spends the whole time wrinkling his nose at the stench, rolling his eyes, threatening to lift his leg on people, and otherwise making rude "comments", so it's really better to just let him stay in the room and lie on the bed). Technically according to RAW, since the Ranger is not incapacitated, the only action the Primal can make is the Dodge action, but could "not present" count as effectively incapacitated? Could they at least bark or growl and scare off a potential intruder? An ordinary pet dog could be a watch-dog like this, so I would think a primal spirit-animal with moderate-low human intelligence should be able to.

Thoughts?

I think it's reasonable to allow a Primal Companion (or any other similar "pet" creature) to be given more general commands like "scare off anybody you don't recognize who tries to come in here" when not in combat.