Situational pet control

When on defense Arathi Basin or Warsong Gulch (and it seems to work to some extent in Eye of the Storm as well), it is not a bad idea to have your pet on aggressive and let him or her do their own thing. This way, they can take on any stealthed opposition or, say, a druid in bear form or shaman in ghost wolf, when you have track humanoids on. It's actually somewhat heady to give your pet his head and trust him, calling him back only when necessary. I don't always do this, but often, if I'm not alone on defense, I do, trying only to keep line of sight most of the time.

This is a very bad habit to take into instances (or Alterac Valley, even) though. I remembered to put him on defensive, but while running a friend through Ragefire Chasm, sent Cinnamon onto what I thought was the trogg right ahead of me, only to have him nearly suffer death by lava with, like, five troggs on him. And I was sitting there, not calling him back, thinking, "Huh, where'd Cinnamon go?" (Thank you, Cryptography!) That's right, I almost killed my pet in the easiest instance in the entire game. Whoops. Bad hunter, no cookie. /shame

So be sure that you're in the right mindset when you're controlling your pet. Instances and PVP that involves aggressive NPCs (such as a raid on an opposing faction city) requires much tighter control than free-for-all PVP. In fact, I'd say know your defensive and passive keybindings and use them any time you're swamped by multiple enemy players, even — you want your pet in the thick of it, not chasing some draenei shaman all the way to another node. Know your situation and make sure you're properly controlling your pet. (Don't be like me!)