do you need to work to maintain a friendly attitude with your animal companion? If you keep sending your dog into combat and it keeps almost dieing, it might start to not trust you?
This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the druid on her adventures.
Emphasis mine. No, the animal shouldn't turn against you.
I've never played it that way, and only a mean DM would make you play it that way. Yes, in real life if you send your dog to go fight and attack things that nearly kill him he might start running away instead, or even turn on you. But this isn't reality, you're a Big D*** Hero, and your pet wolf shouldn't be turning on you because theres a silly dragon over there.
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That said if you are actively abusing the AC (ie not feeding or not allowing it to eat, physically abusing it, etc.), I would have it turn on you. If you are a Druid I would also say that this is acting against your Druid "code", and that you would be punished accordingly.
Ex-Druids
A druid who ceases to revere nature, changes to a prohibited alignment, or teaches the Druidic language to a nondruid loses all spells and druid abilities (including her animal companion, but not including weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). She cannot thereafter gain levels as a druid until she atones (see the atonement spell description).
Usually helpful. Though GMs are fully within their right to change the attitude depending on how badly the poor thing is treated. Animal companion cruelty should not be tolerated.
Edit: Doing things your animal is trained to do (like combat for a war-trained animal) should not factor into this. Neglecting the animal after combat however does start to raise eyebrows.
Bring plenty of food and water and remember to spay or neuter your animal companion.
An animal companion should not turn on their druid (or ranger or whatever). However, a druid should not be using their animal companion as a trap detector either.
Animal companions are supposed to be beloved and trusted companions, and a properly played druid (or ranger or whatever) will treat their companion that way. If the AC is getting abused, then as a GM I would probably have the AC simply leave and make the player call another one. If they abuse that one too, their attempts to call a third will probably simply fail.
lol ok thanks, thats what i thought. one of the other players asked me why my dog would like me after being on the brink of death, being healed, and then sent right back to almost die again and it got me thinking "wow, i would hate me"....but ive always played the always good attitude
Does the fighter hate the cleric for healing him after he falls mid-combat, forcing him to rejoin the life or death battle rather than slowly and painfully succumbing to his wounds and the cold embrace of death? Likely not, assuming he didn't have a genuine death-wish.
Most dogs (loyal ones, that is) are so determined to protect their human family that they will take insane risks for them, limited in audacity only by their intelligence and ability to manipulate objects. Lunging back into the fray after falling trying to defend you seems rather reasonable to me, at least from the experiences I have had with loyal dogs.
Agreed that actively abusing an animal companion is a quick path to ex-druid, but having a loyal companion perform the tasks you have trained it to do is perfectly fine. Doubly so if you healed it, removing its pain and fear with a calm word and a gentle touch.