Can an Animal Companion or Familiar use "Aid Another" to assist its master's attack roll, CMB or AC in combat?
If so, which trained trick is required?
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Animal Companions are subject to the rules for Handle Animal for how they work in combat. There is no Aid Another trick so they simply have no way of being commanded to do such a thing.
A familiar on the other hand is much more intelligent and a sufficiently high level character can speak to them. However most familiars tend to be small enough where they have no effective reach so any kind of combat related Aid Another attempt would require them to be in an opponents square and would draw attacks of opportunity for getting in that state. A good way to get your familiar killed and not normally worth it given that most classes that have a familiar need a little +2 bonus to things like they need all their teeth pulled.
If you want something to be around assisting you, your best bet would be your allies or perhaps a cohort.
Animal Companions are subject to the rules for Handle Animal for how they work in combat. There is no Aid Another trick so they simply have no way of being commanded to do such a thing.
A familiar on the other hand is much more intelligent and a sufficiently high level character can speak to them. However most familiars tend to be small enough where they have no effective reach so any kind of combat related Aid Another attempt would require them to be in an opponents square and would draw attacks of opportunity for getting in that state. A good way to get your familiar killed and not normally worth it given that most classes that have a familiar need a little +2 bonus to things like they need all their teeth pulled.
If you want something to be around assisting you, your best bet would be your allies or perhaps a cohort.
Technically not true, once the animal companion has 3 or more int, it is capable of understanding languages and gestures of people, no longer requiring most handle animal checks. Although most of the skillchecks animals that you need help with are usually ones that require hands, mostly DM call on that one.
Also, even when they only have 2 int, animal companions can still make the combat aid another action (by being distracting/harassing and such)
From the animal companion section... "Possible tricks (and their associated DCs) include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following." (suggesting that creating addition tricks with GM approval is expected behavior)
I would say the best answer would be....
Have the GM name this trick (in our group, when a druid requested this, the GM called it "harry" as in to ravage) and this would be a standard handle animal check as a free-action via the link rules, if the animal companion was trained in this trick.
if the animal companion is not trained in this trick, the druid may "push" it to do so as a move action, and the DC is much higher.
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I agree that this sounds like a custom trick for an AC - possibly a different trick for aiding attack and defense. And an AC with Int 3+ is probably smart enough to figure it out without the trick. There was a bit of discussion about normal wild wolves using aid another recently and most posters seemed to think that they would be able to at least aid in attacks, which suggests to me that aid another shouldn't be outside an AC's capability.
And while a familiar is smart enough to aid another in combat, unless you have a small size familiar or your familiar somehow gets reach, it's probably a bit risky.
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Technically not true, once the animal companion has 3 or more int, it is capable of understanding languages and gestures of people, no longer requiring most handle animal checks. Although most of the skill checks animals that you need help with are usually ones that require hands, mostly DM call on that one.
Also, even when they only have 2 int, animal companions can still make the combat aid another action (by being distracting/harassing and such)
Yes, I did not include the point in which you can actually speak to your animal companion. Sorry for that but I didn't think it was relevant to a general question.
Your second point needs proof to justify your claim.