Need someone to double check my Animal Companion advancement

[lytokk]

So last week I asked about my wife wanting to play a druid. I told her I'd handle levelling up her animal companion so she's only got the one character to worry about, basically trying to take as much off of her as I can.

She decided on a wolf companion (originally wanted Dire wolf, but I told her it was too high of a level for her) and I went about levelling it up.

So, she's level 3, which means the AC gets 2HD, +2 Nat Armor, +1 dex/str, those 2 HD advance it to large size, and using the adjustments in the monster manual for advancing creatures to larger size, and the +1 stat for 4 HD, I got this

STR 22
DEX 14
CON 20 (+1 for level)
INT 2
WIS 12
CHA 6

AC 17 (+2 Dex, +6 NA, -1 size)

Bite went from 1d6+1 to 1d8+6, with a +9 attack bonus. (6 for str, 3 BAB, -1 size, +1 weapon focus (bite))

Added the 2 skillpoints to spot and listen, and I was thinking either alertness or stealthy for the feat. If it was mine, I'd go power attack, BUT, I didn't want to give my wife another mechanic to worry about.

One of the things that has me confused is the dire wolf's str is 25, who has a bite that deals 1d8 +10. Does bite get STR +1/2 to damage, cause I can't find anything in the entry that would increase its damage except for that.

[Sayt]

I don't know about 3.5, but in Pathfinder, at least, if a monster only has one natural weapon it get's strength and a half.

[Pilo]

Animal compagnon Hit Dices do not advance animal size.
If a creature only has one natural attack, it adds 1.5 his strenght bonus to damage.

Weapon focus(bite), Improved Natural Attack, Improved natural armor or Improved initiative are also good feats.

[hymer]

It's a little iffy, but there's no real indication that druid animal companions advance in size when they advance in HD. All the other effectd of going up in HD is mentioned, except that specific one, which applies to when the DM advances a monster's HD.
And in 3.5 too, you get 1½ str to bite attacks when they're all you get, as Sayt mentions.

[phlidwsn]

The druid bonus gives Bonus HD, you're not advancing the wolf via Monster Advancement. You get what's in the table, ie no size increase.

From the FAQ: When you add Hit Dice to a druid’s (or ranger’s) animal
companion as the master’s level goes up, does the animal
get any bigger? For instance, when a druid has a wolf
companion, the wolf starts out with the standard 2 Hit Dice
and is size Medium. By the time the druid is 3rd level, the
wolf has 2 bonus Hit Dice. According to the wolf entry in
the MM, an “advanced” wolf with 4 Hit Dice would be
Large. Is the example companion wolf also Large?
An animal companion doesn’t get bigger when it adds extra
Hit Dice for the master’s levels. The advancement entries for
creatures, and the rules for advancing monsters, refer to
unusually powerful specimens that are simply tougher (and
perhaps bigger) than normal for their kinds.

[lytokk]

and that's why I need to check these things out. Well, she's going to be dissapointed when I tell her she can't ride her wolf around, maybe the wolf will just become dire at the appropriate level, or something.

Are there feats out there to improve the animal companion? Wife was trying to figure out some feats for her character and I had thought I've heard of some, but I couldn't find them in the books I had on hand.

[Diarmuid]

Natural Bond (feat) increases your druid level (but not beyond your character level) for purposes of determining AC stats.

There is some discussion on whether this lets you pick a higher level AC that would normally be beyond your druid level to get (like picking something off the "4th level or higher" list at 1st level).