The good folks over at Asherons Call have updated their site with some very usefull advice on pets!

Pet Care Advice

Anyone who's ever summoned a Reedshark or Lasher knows pets are complex creatures with minds of their own—and that training them occasionally requires a nudge in the right direction. Over the coming months, pet AI will continue to improve through the update process. At the same time, we'd also like to offer the following advice.

Path finding (Taking Fido for his walk)
With the exception of Tacticians' turrets and walls, pets are highly mobile creatures. They'll stay by your side for the duration of their existence. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't take care where they wander. It may be easy enough for you to avoid monsters you don't want to face; your pets, however, are creatures of the wild, and there's no leash holding them in check. Pets might draw the attention of monsters, even if you're laying low, so be cautious when taking them out for a walk.

You should also be careful bringing your pet into combat. Some pets become excited and lose control in the battlefield chaos. When subjected to area-of-effect spells, they may even become so aggressive they turn on their owners! Be mindful of the potential danger. (Hey, could you really expect faithful companionship from the likes of a Virindi Servitor?)

When animals attack
Once you bring pets into combat, it might take an extra prod to send them in to attack. (They don't always hear your first 'sic' command.). If your pet is not attacking when it should be, there are a number of quick, easy steps to correct this. First, disengage from the creature you're attacking, then re-engage it. Or for a quicker fix, walk a few steps forward and back, or to the side. Either way, this should wake your pet up, and let it know there's a'fightin' going on!

Of course, instead of sending your summoned creature on the attack, you might also consider how to use a pet that refuses to fight. For instance, if it wants to stay put, you can always use your pet as an effective shield. (Tacticians aren't the only ones who can summon barriers.) Hey, if your pet won't respond, then absorbing a few Mucor teeth marks ought to teach it a valuable lesson.

Combat damage
Monitoring combat damage takes a little bit of planning as well. If you want to see the damage your pet inflicts, go to the Game Options panel. Check the box for See Other Characters Damage Numbers. You'll then see your pets' combat damage as floating numbers over their heads.

And just for the record: Adept skills provide bonuses to attack with and defend against specialized skills. However, this bonus does not extent to the pets you summon (with the upcoming exception of Lugian Tacticians). Training the Adept skill for your specialist class does not affect your pet's attack abilities, nor will it help defend against pets of the same specialist path.

Proper care and feeding are always important
With these simple tricks and the continual advancement of pet AI over the coming months, pets can remain dependable aids in your battles. Just watch where you step. At present time, Dereth has no scooping laws. And Shreths can make quite a mess.