So my girlfriend and I were doing an early game fight in Cyseal and kept reloading because a nearby dog would join the fight and get killed. Eventually she had the idea of throwing a bone to 'try and distract it'.
But here's the thing.
IT WORKED. She threw the bone before the fight, the dog went running after it and stared at the bone instead of running headlong into the fight once we initiated combat.
About five hours in so far and we're both enjoying the game immensely. I love that we can enter a building and head off on our own talking to all of the inhabitants and then meet back up to fill each other in on what we found and decide how we should go about completing quests from there. Really great stuff.
Also, talking to animals, as has been said, should be an essential starting trait for one of your characters. Some of the best characters we've met so far have been animals, plus there are some interesting quests/quest alternatives that arise from it. I was eagerly looking forward to this game as a fan of the original DD and the game has exceeded my expectations in every way so far. I haven't gotten into too many fights, but the combat we have participated in was both challenging and exciting. I have only good things to say about our time playing. So wonderful to be playing such a deep and engrossing cRPG in 2014.