Animal companions fighting defensively?

[Chess Pwn]

Is there a way, trick or anything to solidly get an animal companion to fight using fighting defensively option?
I'm considering doing a build that gets a reduced level animal companion and can't get boon companion for a few levels, but rather than have the animal do nothing I figure fighting defensively can help get the AC high enough to survive, and then just hope for hits.

[Cavall]

I can easily imagine that given the trucks of defend flank maneuver and flee, as well as aid another, you could make up a trick for just such a purpose.

Pushing an animal gets it to "perform a task or trick that it doesn’t know but is physically capable of performing."

And all tricks listed are "common tricks".

More than reasonable to teach a pet to evade being attacked.

Personally I believe of they know the defend trick and they are ordered to defend themselves, fighting defensively should be innate.

[blahpers]

Any reason they should need a trick for this? Is the GM controlling your companion? Animals know how to adapt their fighting tactics to a given situation.

[Chess Pwn]

Yes, the GM controls the animal like the rules say he should. I can give it commands via handle animal. I'm just looking to see if I can tell it when to fight defensively or not, most things I've found that reference choices for animals say they are too dumb and always do the same thing. So I'm not sure when I tell it to go attack that thing how or when I'd be able to tell it to attack it cautiously aka defensively.

[John Murdock]

i would say that fighting defensively is an natural thing to do for any living creature especially against dangerous foes.

wolf do it in nature when fighting animals that are larger than them but know when in high number can kill it, they use defensive tactics and try to not get hit the most even if their attack might miss(better sorry than dead)

[Chess Pwn]

But would the animal know that the small imp is dangerous? How about the little halfling that's smaller than it? Like am I just allowed to say fight defensively when I tell it to attack? Do it just do it when it(gm) feels like it?

[N N 959]

Chess Pwn wrote:

Is there a way, trick or anything to solidly get an animal companion to fight using fighting defensively option?

No.

The entire mechanic of AComs, tricks and intelligence is a big black hole of GM discretion. I've asked the PFS heads of state to provide PFS with some guidelines (not even asking for rules) on how to handle the multitude of combat actions animals can take that aren't associated with tricks or feats.

For example,

if given the Down command, does the animal naturally take a 5' step back? Will it go Total Defense?

If given the Heel command while in combat, will the animal use Withdraw?

Can an animal naturally avoid AoO areas when moving past combatants and not ordered to attack a target?

What about telling an animal to use non-lethal attacks?

Add to that the variation of having an animal that has a higher intelligence and/or understands Common.

In PFS, i've seen it run the gamut from GMs telling me that everything not a specific Trick is a Push" to other GMs being totally willing to allow stuff. Even with a 3 INT/Common understanding animal, I've had a GM refuse to let it take 5' steps or use Total Defense when spoken to. I've even had one GM tell me it was a Push to get the animal to use non-lethal attacks for each different combatant (but I chalk that up to the GM intentionally being adversarial, rather than any rules basis).

I really wish PFS would revamp how AComs are handled. There is absolutely zero guidance for GMs in answering your question.