Question about Animal Handling

[Esran]

So I just picked up Animal Handling skill last night to try it out. I had to save up to 2000 coins to pay for it (yes, I was broke), so imagine my despair when my $2000 rat, Rizzo, died to save me from Mr. Named Tiger (can't remember the actual name...newbie killer fang bite, or something like that). It took me a while but I finally discovered how to get him back. I had to admit though, calling Rizzo's corpse to me made me laugh.

During the short time that Rizzo was alive, I noticed that he would help kill stuff I was fighting, but I was not getting AH xp for it. I thought it was maybe because I had 2 pets. I had also charmed a rat so I had 2 following me. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be possible to do this, so I tried it and it worked. So I dismissed both rats, called Rizzo back and then I saw that I was getting XP for AH. However, after a while I found that I was not getting XP again. After dismissing and recalling the rat, I would then see AH XP, but it would stop again after moving a short distance away.

So my questions are these. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is it a bug that I should report? Am I maybe doing something wrong?
Thanks in advance.
-Esran

[Niph]

The rat will get XP if it fights alongside you. You will get XP if you use AH abilities shortly before, during or shortly after a fight. The rat will also get bond XP if it fights with you (for regular XP, just put it in stay mode near you).

So, if your pet dies too often and needs to be power-leveled, put it in stay mode, pull mobs and fight near it. As soon as it can handle fighting, use it for damage or tanking or whatever, and don't forget to use some AH ability. This way you will level up together.

[ShieldBreaker]

No this isn't a bug. You need to be using the combat skills during the battle, there is a limited amount of time since the last time you use a given combat skill that it will count towards xp. If you were to use Feed Pet during the battle, even if you didn't need to, then it would lead to gaining xp when you kill an enemy. This is true for Armor Patching and First Aid as well, the main way to gain xp is use it in battle, even if you don't need to. When you get more abilities in Animal Handling, it will be easier to make sure you get the xp, because you are more likely to want to be using lots of different abilities in the fight.

[Esran]

Got it. That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the replies! I should be able to raise it much quicker knowing what to watch for.

[Esran]

Thanks for the tips guys! I was able to raise AH quite a bit last night. I'm using Archery as my other skill right now. So with a bow in my off-hand and AH as my other combat skill, is there anything in particular I should have for my main hand? I still my sword there because sword is my next highest skill and the one I'll likely continue to raise, but with Archery and AH in particular, does it matter what I have there?

[ShieldBreaker]

You should hold in your main hand any item that gives you the best Treasure Effects for your current skills (i.e. AH and Archery).

http://www.gorgonexplorer.com/build-planner
this website is helpful for figuring out what is possible for equipment.

At the low levels, just looting random main hand items that give mod to abilities in the skills you are using is good. At higher levels you will want to start learning about modifying your own equipment.