Raising the animal's Intelligence from 2 to 3 doesn't give it extra tricks. However, her animal companion will gain another bonus trick at level 3 and every 3 levels afterward.
You'll have to use your judgment as to whether Track is more or less useful than "Attack Horrible Things", as it will vary hugely from campaign to campaign. Alternately, think about the characters (both druid and companion) and decide what the animal would be more likely to know.
As for using an exotic saddle, yes, as wolves aren't really built for riding. Your GM might rule that riding dogs can be ridden with regular-cost saddles in areas that have a lot of Small riders, and that would likely transfer to riding a wolf, so check with him/her.
The number of tricks is specified for Intelligence scores of 1 or 2 (see the Handle Animal skill). The pattern doesn't extend past that, as animals normally cannot achieve such scores. Animal companions are special in that they can acquire higher intelligence.
The rules don't actually cover the idea of Intelligence 3 animals, so your GM is free to rule that it either gains extra tricks or (if the animal learns a language by spending a Linguistics point) no longer really needs tricks. I prefer interpreting thusly: Handle Animal still applies if you want to be able to *make* your animal do something, but simple speech can request a behavior if the animal can understand you--keeping in mind that even with a shared language, the animal has depressingly low Intelligence and may not understand your request unless it's "find smell" or "kill icky thing".
Some interesting info on intelligent animals, though it doesn't address the question of extra trick slots for higher Intelligence. The Animal Archive supplement may also be useful. This topic is of great interest to me, as my current character is accompanied by his trusty "dire pig" (read: boar) who is unusually smart and twice as good-looking.
The problem here might be that rules-wise an animal has either INT 1 or INT 2, which in turn gives it either 3 or 6 tricks.
BUT: the animal companion of a druid/ranger is rules-wise not an animal it's in its own category.
An AC with an INT of 3 does not have to rely on tricks (alone) but can put skill ranks in any skill.
If you spend a skill point on Linguistics your AC will be able to comprehend the druid's common language--with Survival being a class skill anyways you could now simply order/ask it to do some tracking.
Independent of the AC's INT you still need to do Handle Animal checks to get the AC to do what you want it to.
And, as always, using the search function might yield even more explainations. For starters go here.
Ruyan.
EDIT:13 min difference and blahpers' post wasn't showing... Ninja'ed by Squealy Nord.
Not at all; the package of tricks is just that, a package of tricks. Riding by itself only requires "come", "heel", and "stay", and you can try to get away with more if you're confident in your ability to push (note: not recommended, as it requires a longer action and is quite difficult). The other three tricks ("attack", "defend", and "guard") add the combat training. If you don't need "guard", for example, you could discard it, keeping in mind that the creature might not know enough to defend you from an approaching orc until it perceives that the orc is a threat to you or it. It may understand anyway, or it may not. The trick, along with the stipulation that animal companions follow their druid to the best of their ability, essentially guarantees that the animal will do the things you've trained it to do. Everything else is a function of (a) whether the animal can understand you, (b) whether it is smart enough to do the thing you've requested, and (c) whether it can overcome an opposing phenomenon that might prevent it from performing the requested task (e.g., fear, pain, strain, or even laziness).
Raising the animal's Intelligence from 2 to 3 doesn't give it extra tricks. However, her animal companion will gain another bonus trick at level 3 and every 3 levels afterward.
Not true. PFS FAQ
That is a PFS FAQ, not a design team FAQ. This is a Pathfinder rules forum, not a PFS rules forum, and while PFS acknowledges and generally uses Pathfinder FAQs, they also implement their own interpretations and, on occasion, house rules. That entry contains several, including the idea that animals cannot take weapon feats--which they can, according to Paizo's own blog post mentioned above and subject to GM latitude, if they are capable of using the weapon (big if), though those feats may not be terribly useful if the animal doesn't like using those weapons.
(Edited for clarification.)
Yes, and the Handle Animal skill doesn't say that you don't get more tricks for Int higher than 2. It just says you get 3 tricks for 2 Int, and 6 tricks for a 3 Int. At the time, animals couldn't have an Int higher than 2 and still be animals. Which is why it says Int 2, not Int 2 or higher.
But the same blog post you linked states it is an intentional design choice to change that, so after raising your AC's Int to 3 or more they are still an animal.
The official blog doesn't address additional tricks, yea or nay. Animal Archive only discusses Awakened animals that I could see, not simply raising their Int. But the PFS FAQ does, using a progression derived from the Handle Animal skill (3 tricks per point of Int).
Since the PFS FAQ is the only place I can find that actually addresses the issue, it seems the most authoritative source to reference.
Since the PFS FAQ is the only place I can find that actually addresses the issue, it seems the most authoritative source to reference.
If that's what you consider authoritative, who am I to argue? But, in the end, PFS is just some guy's campaign with a whooooole lotta players.