How can a front door be repaired from dog scratches?

Sand slightly,touch up to match stain

Depends on what kind of material the door is made of. But like the other commenter said, sanding is probably going to be a first step for sure.

If the door is hardwoo, here’s a trick not many know of unless there woodworkers themselves! Many times our hardwood comes from the factories with scratches that can’t be easily sanded out without sanding too much material off! But you can take a damp cloth and a hot iron and place the damp cloth over the scratches and iron the cloth to steam out the scratches that will make the grain swell and in many cases the scratches will almost disappear! You can steam the wood several times if it doesn’t raise the grain enough on the first try? Once you get the grain raised to a acceptable level then just sand out the rest of the scratch! This will work on normal scratches, if it’s a deep scratches you may have to resort to either a wood filler or you can take a little wood glue and mix it with some saw dust from your door to make your own perfect matching putty to fill deep scratches or holes! Then finish sand and stain or clear lacquer, or use a oil finish. If it’s a exposed exterior door that gets beat by the elements of the weather and your finish is always deteriorating? I highly recommend using a exterior oil finish like Watco Exterior wood finish. It will take more time to get a nice finish on the outside of your door being it will take many coats of oil to protect the door well. More coats the better really. First few coats will soak into the grain of your wood where a clear lacquer won’t soak in to the wood anywhere near as much as a oil will! First few coats you can reapply within 10-15 minutes being they will dry quickly as they soak into the wood! As you add more layers of oil the oil will start building up on your door making a thicker finish and will take much longer to dry! There’s no right amount of coats to put on. But as Inebtioned the more the better for protecting your door! As you add coats of oil you’ll notice the finish getting a little rough! BTW, you can apply oil either with a brush, roller, or a cloth rag! That’s your choice which you prefer. Myself I usually use rags! Anyway if your finish starts feeling rough to the touch when it’s dry, you can either use steel wool or 220 grit wet/dry sand paper and pour oil directly on to the steel wool or sandpaper and oil sand the finish making sure to keep plenty of oil on your sanding material! This will give you a nice smooth finish when your threw! To do a really nice oil finish on a door to match a lacquer finish will take a good week or so, being the oil will take up to 72 hours to dry when you get 10-15 coats of oil on a door at room temperature! So it’s a labor of love. But you won’t be needing to refinish your door again for years! The nice part is, anytime you’re door starts looking a little weathered or dirty, just grab your clear oil and steel wool or sand paper and light rub the door down again with another coat of oil and let it dry. If there’s any heavy excess of oil wipe it off with a dry cloth. Your door will look new all over again with very little effort!

one word of warning! If you use rags with any stain or other lacquer products. Never wrinkle up your rags or put them in a pile! Otherwise your rags can spontaneously combust on fire 🔥! Always lay out all used rags flat outside some place safe where they can’t catch anything on fire and let the rags dry completely before tossing them in your crash can! This is very serious and not a meth by any means! I use to not believe it myself till one day I seen a wrinkled up rag burst into flames right in front of me! It can really happen! So please be very careful working with any stains or clear finishes! Best of luck

You can also get a brass, stainless steel or aluminum kickplate for the bottom of the door, if you have a little dog.