So... the Huntmaster feat states:
Huntmaster (Human)
You are an expert trainer of horses, hounds, falcons, or hunting cats.
Prerequisites: Handle Animal 1 rank; either the animal companion, divine bond (mount), or mount class feature; human.
Benefit: If you have the animal companion class feature, pick one of the following types of animal companions that this feat affects: bird, dog, small cat, or horse. If you have the divine bond (mount) or mount class feature, this feat always affects horses. You gain a +2 bonus on Handle Animal and Knowledge (nature) checks with creatures of that type of animal. Furthermore, you are treated as one level higher when determining the abilities of your animal companion or mount, as long as it is of the chosen type.
and eye for talent human alternate racial trait
Eye for Talent Humans have great intuition for hidden potential. They gain a +2 racial bonus on Sense Motive checks. In addition, when they acquire an animal companion, bonded mount, cohort, or familiar, that creature gains a +2 bonus to one ability score of the character's choice. This racial trait replaces the bonus feat trait.
As say a pack lord druid of second level with two dog companions, Would this in effect give each of your dogs an additional effective druid level and a +2 to a single ability score?
It's not a major buff if so, but it does provide quite a bonus at lower levels if so.
The easy one: Eye for Talent will apply to each animal.
More complicated: My initial thought was it would apply only once, but on re-reading it there is no limit. You look at each AC individually.
Also relevant is the wording of packbond which actually assigns effective levels to each AC, so you don't appear to run into a stacking/overlap issue.
Pack Bond (Ex): A packmaster can have more than one animal companion, but she must divide her effective druid level between her companions to determine the abilities of each one. For example, a 4th-level packmaster can have one 4th-level animal companion, two 2nd-level companions, one 3rd-level companion and one 1st-level companion, or four 1st-level companions.
The easy one: Eye for Talent will apply to each animal.
More complicated: My initial thought was it would apply only once, but on re-reading it there is no limit. You look at each AC individually.
Also relevant is the wording of packbond which actually assigns effective levels to each AC, so you don't appear to run into a stacking/overlap issue.
Pack Bond (Ex): A packmaster can have more than one animal companion, but she must divide her effective druid level between her companions to determine the abilities of each one. For example, a 4th-level packmaster can have one 4th-level animal companion, two 2nd-level companions, one 3rd-level companion and one 1st-level companion, or four 1st-level companions.
well the confusion with pack bond is how the two abilities interact, it seems that the feat interacts with the actual animals and their personal power as if I were a level higher,
So If I have 2 dogs and an ape... do I:
A.) Gain the bonus, only applying it as a +1 that can only be applied to one of the dogs
B.) Gain the bonus to each dog, but not to the ape
C.) Not gain the bonus at all, as having an ape disqualifies me from doing so
On reading packbond I am satisfied it is B). You are right in that it interacts with each individual animal, and not your overall level.
I think reading Huntmaster together with Packbond really makes that clear. Just reading Huntmaster on it's own it is easy to think the answer is A).
I can't see anything to justify C) as Huntmaster just asks you if that particular AC is relevant. There is no exclusionary language such as 'as long as all your companions are...'