Animals no matter how smart, are unable to speak any languages. It would understand your language pretty well however.
Intelligence (Int)
Intelligence determines how well your character learns and reasons. This ability is important for wizards because it affects their spellcasting ability in many ways. Creatures of animal-level instinct have Intelligence scores of 1 or 2. Any creature capable of understanding speech has a score of at least 3. A character with an Intelligence score of 0 is comatose. Some creatures do not possess an Intelligence score. Their modifier is +0 for any Intelligence-based skills or checks.
Emphasis mine. The general consensus is that any animal companion with an Int of 3 can learn to understand Common (single rank in Linguistics). So you wouldn't need to get Int up to 10 just for that :).
This has cropped up in the past. You should take a look at this thread.
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Animals with an Int of 3 and a rank in Linguistics should be able to understand basic - very basic - commands in Common. In my game, the mechanical benefit of this is that the "trick" system is bypassed. I think that's how most people run things, but of course it isn't spelled out anywhere in so many words.
If the 4 ability score points my companion had were spent in Int, how much smarter does this make my pet?
If you need numbers, a basic rule of thumb that seems to work is 1 point of int= 10 points of iq, so bob the peasant with an int of 10 has an iq of 100, the elven wizard with the 20 int has an iq of 200.
An animal with int of 6 would be as intelligent as any other int 6 creature?
More or less, but its still going to have an animals life experience. An in 6 half orc that was raised amoung humans probably knows how to tie his shoes, and that if your horse throws a shoe you take him to a black smith, and what silverware is for. An int 6 animal will not.
Assuming my companion somehow had his score raided to 10 or above, it would gain extra skill points I know, but would it, as an int 10+ entity, be able to comprehend perhaps not speak common, given sufficient time to learn?
A creature with an int of 3 should be able to understand at least one language (probably common) A druid with a 14 int that turns into a bear... still cannot speak anything but bear, even if they've been spending 8 hours a day as a bear for 5 years. I would say that means that the problem speaking is physical rather than mental, so no, unless you have a raven or a parrot they shouldn't be able to speak common.
Tying intelligence to IQ scores really hasn't been a canon part of the game since 1e. 3.x with it's broader range of non-augmented scores (25 or 28 with age modifiers) simply doesn't correspond to Iq measurements any more which are typically set up with 100 being the median score and 15 points being a standard deviation.
If we use 3d6 as the default non-heroic determiner of intelligence and compared it to IQ scores you'd get something like the following.
Int 4-5 is IQ 70
Int 7-8 if IQ 85
Int 10-11 is IQ 100
Int 13-14 is IQ 115
Int 16-17 is IQ 130
Int 19-20 is IQ 145
Roughly 96% of individuals would be within 2 standard deviations from the median.
IQ in general is a very controversial measurement and there is definitely questions as to it's validity especially in relationship to the construct we call intelligence (which in pure game terms represents many things beyond IQ).
So if Int 3-5 is IQ 50-70 and IQ 50-70 is roughly equal to mild mental retardation then Int 3-5 Animal Companions are mildly mentally retarded in human terms.
Of course this is all really dubious logic and is a good reason why the intelligence scores referencing an IQ score is an element of the game that should be removed from play.
If the 4 ability score points my companion had were spent in Int, how much smarter does this make my pet? An animal with int of 6 would be as intelligent as any other int 6 creature? Assuming my companion somehow had his score raided to 10 or above, it would gain extra skill points I know, but would it, as an int 10+ entity, be able to comprehend perhaps not speak common, given sufficient time to learn?
You would not be able to have an Animal Companion with an IQ greater than 2. If your animal companion has is IQ increased to 3 or more, then he is no longer an animal, but a magical beast.
At which point, you would have to get another animal companion. The old one with IQ 3 or higher, would then be a NPC, henchman, follower, or leave to go fill his own goals.
At least that my understanding of RAW
You would not be able to have an Animal Companion with an IQ greater than 2. If your animal companion has is IQ increased to 3 or more, then he is no longer an animal, but a magical beast.
Go back and read the animal companion entry -- it says the exact opposite.
Now with normal animals you are correct -- but not with animal companions.
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If the 4 ability score points my companion had were spent in Int, how much smarter does this make my pet? An animal with int of 6 would be as intelligent as any other int 6 creature? Assuming my companion somehow had his score raided to 10 or above, it would gain extra skill points I know, but would it, as an int 10+ entity, be able to comprehend perhaps not speak common, given sufficient time to learn?You would not be able to have an Animal Companion with an IQ greater than 2. If your animal companion has is IQ increased to 3 or more, then he is no longer an animal, but a magical beast.
At which point, you would have to get another animal companion. The old one with IQ 3 or higher, would then be a NPC, henchman, follower, or leave to go fill his own goals.
At least that my understanding of RAW
This is incorrect, although it is a misconception that seems to persist for some reason. It has been talked about quite a bit in fact. Animal Companions are an exception to the general rule. They very much can have their INT score increased above 2 AND they still remain a normal animal (well, a normal animal companion, that is). They do not become a magical beast or anything like that.
Hopefully it will be clarified once and for all in the FAQ once it is officially up an running
At least that my understanding of RAW
Skills: This lists the animal's total skill ranks. Animal companions can assign skill ranks to any skill listed under Animal Skills. If an animal companion increases its Intelligence to 10 or higher, it gains bonus skill ranks as normal. Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can purchase ranks in any skill. An animal companion cannot have more ranks in a skill than it has Hit Dice.
So yes, animal companions can have ints higher than 2.