I've read quite a lot of threads about taming so that I wouldn't just be repeating the same questions but theres a few I just need some clarification on.

1) I've only been attempting to tame non-aggro creatures so far, brown bears and cougars are great for my level, when attempting to tame an aggressive creature will attempting to tame them stop any aggression? I'm pretty sure it doesn't but I thought I'd ask.

2) Because I traded in a bard so I could start with 50 taming/lore and because I'm trying to make most of my toons to be hybrids so I can get a taste of everything I'm building a bard/tamer. So a few questions on that

Will using peacemaking on a specific creature give me sufficient time to get a taming attempt off?

Because it will, among other things, boost peacemaking (I think) would it be better to take Discordance over Magery? I know I'll need a little magic for the moments when I seem like more tempting meat than my bears but I can get enough for the old 'in vas mani' through jewelry and a book. I know opinions divided on bard v magery as taming support but I'd like to hear a few reasons why ones preferred over the other. One problem with disco over mage I do know is that I can't kill animals to get fresh respawns and when you have paragon great harts popping up that you can't tame when you kill the regulars you had its darn annoying I haven't intended to make this a solo toon though and once I get a decent (70+) tamer on the go I'm hoping to put her in a Role-play guild.

How much effect does discoing a pet your taming have on the stats you get after taming? I've heard it makes it easier but at a large cost to stats. If the effect makes it easier to tame could the stats can be retrained in less time than extra failed attempts and dying would have added on?

3) When I'm going for a wander with the hair bear bunch even if I haven't asked them to guard me because I want them to stay with me they occasionally decide to jump into a brigands camp. Will higher taming and lore stop them doing this? I lost a polar bear earlier like that and because I ride to their hideaway in malas and back (the amount of housing allowed there is freakin ridiculous, takes about 5 minutes extra to get there from house dodging) it wasn't a loss I was happy with.

4) Do tamed animals gain skills faster than a person trying to raise the same skills for themselves? By that I mean if I create a wrestler for example it takes (x) amount of time to GM it, if I had an animal with 50 skill in wrestling would it get GM quicker than a human/elf?

5) I'm running 9th anniversary and can't name my pets, which is very annoying, is this a known problem? I got told to get the name/hp bar of an animal and single click the name and it should go purple and let me enter a name. Well it doesn't even go purple Any suggestions or am I going to have to get KR and switch to it when I get an animal I want naming?

Thankies

Nay, it doesn't

Yes, although it depends on the difficulty of the animal/monster and how high your peacemaking is.

Nay, it won't
One feature I'd love to see is the ability to set your pet to a "peace" mode, like in WOW, but UO doesn't have that right now

Wow alot of questions so here goes Adam is correct so far (check into "lead taming" for aggressive creatures). Cant be sure on stat loss and regain..I know dex will jump up not sure about the others! tamed animals do gain skill faster than characters! bard tamer is a nice template to play however you must sacrifice something to make it effective..too many skills to fit it all! My advice is to go with something like this

Magery
Animal taming
Vet
Animal lore
Music
Peace
Disco

at least til you get higher than you can readjust to raise the ones you want higher than 100. Also having magery while you train will give you recall and added heals and mark to make taming less tedious getting to and from tame spots.

9th anni is sufficient for naming animals...try this!
When you tame an animal right click his bar so it disappears..then repull his bar....then single click at the end of his name...back-space to delete his name....rename and hit enter...dont forget to hit enter or it wont take

Sadly you're right, an aggressive pet won't stop trying to eat you until it's tamed. If you get onto cu sidhe, it's worth remembering that if you're still under the effect of their bleed attack when it tames, it =won't= stop trying to eat you. You'll need to invis once the bleed wears off. Don't ask me how I learnt this! *coughs*

If you have enough skill, however I actually find it easier without peace, as it takes a bit of getting used to. You'll need to learn roughly how long it'll last in each case, otherwise a critter goes from peaceful to munch without warning heheh.

Oh and you do suffer an extra 4% skill loss I believe with peacemaking, as you do with para taming. Normally I think it's a 10% loss, but you lose 14% with peace/para. As long since I looked them up hehe.
I'd always ensure a bard has some method of healing themselves, and if you don't want to rely on potions, I'd suggest magery real skill around 80-85. I can cast invis most times, keep myself healed and if I use a bit of magery twinking with items, I can drop the odd EV to beat down a mare, or res a friend. You could also look at chivalry, but I prefer magery for distant healing (eg around succubui) and invis

Try taking a bear with you, they'll handle paragons fairly well If you disco the paragons too, then just about any pet will kill those with a tiny bit of vetting.

Disco has no effect on the skills or stats of your pet after taming. Just make sure you lore the wild critter before disco, otherwise the stats are all obviously messed up!

The penalty from peace/para however won't wear off, you'll need to retrain the skills. I'm sure critters with over 100 in a skill will suffer most, because the cap a pet has on its skills are determined when they're tamed (if over 100) so you'd loose extra.

Sadly not The minute you take more than 1 pet into a busy area, you can have issues with them running off. You can always try leaving them somewhere safe, going where you need to be and logging out then back in. The auto log thing should bring them to you without the same trouble. It is a royal pain, and why many tamers abandon packs

Pets aren't affected by GGS etc, and seem to gain at a faster rate than players. Gains do slow at high levels however. Many skills can be trained in similar ways on pets eg matching melee skills to similar levelled monsters, poison to raise a cu's healing and so on.

Hope that helps

Incidentally this is how my youngest bard template looks:

tame/lore/vet/music/provo/disco/magery

You can easily fit in 2 bard skills, but it's a tight squeeze! I wear spell woven mantle for the +10 music too... not that pricey and has luck, which is handy. I will twink disco/provo to 120 but have real taming skill at 110 to ensure control etc.

I chose provo for crowd control, disco to weaken critters. You can also disco then provo stuff, which I often do with a hiryu. Send hiryu in as the target, then provo spawn onto each other, rather than the hiryu, and move on. Often I use 2 bake kitsune As soon as you can get yourself a pair, I highly recommend them.

Wenchy