Going off of page 80 in the Ultimate Equipment guide, it seems to me that higher quality animals can be purchased at higher prices. Masterwork animals could be the result of good breeding, or simply trapping a quality specimen. Either way, the cost of "making" such an animal is 150 gp + half the animal's purchase price. The price of a masterwork animal is 300gp + the price of the animal.
Masterwork Animals gain the following:
-a +2 bonus to any ability score except Intelligence.
-1 additional trick already learned.
-3 skill points that must be distributed at the time of purchase.
For an additional 2,000 gp, these bonuses are doubled.
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It's not a "normal, unmodified animal" any more though.
I don't feel very comfortable with treating animals as masterwork items - they are living creatures, after all!
Instead, I would give an extraordinary specimen the advanced template (maybe without increasing Intelligence, depends on what kind of game I wanted to play) or add some racial HD. It also has the benefit that I don't have to explain to the druid's/ranger's player why he can't choose that animal as his buddy.