Best Feats/Equipment for my Wild Cohort

[Dunsparce]

Hello. In one campaign I'm in I play a Mystic Ranger that took the wild cohort feat at level 6. There was a story reason for this. My ranger befriended a dog that was a diseased pet of some bandits he killed. He befriended him with Wild Empathy and got his disease cured. For the next few levels, Both in and out of character I was worried about the frailty of a 1HD dog and it came to a head when a villain specifically targeted the dog and almost killed it(We also lost an NPC friend in that fight. Guy was a jerk). I decided that it was best to make sure Meatgrinder(named such as to sound tough) my Wild Cohort, as Mystic Rangers forgo animal companions for better spellcasting. The DM was kind enough to allow my to apply the Warbeast template to the dog even though it was normally too small sized to qualify. He's now quit beefy and with a chainshirt now has the highest AC in the party. I picked Improved Toughness as his 3HD feat, but I need ideas for his 6, 9, and 12 HD feats, since my group's campaigns usually go from levels 1-20.

Also I need some equipment ideas for the guy.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

He gets skill points for his extra HD, so give him enough cross-class ranks in Spellcraft for Mage Slayer in CA. Even an animal can be trained to recognize spells from not-spells, after all.

A dog is a very weak choice for an animal companion or wild cohort, but it's understandable that having the dog your character rescued is more important than mechanics. Even so, see if you can use riding dog stats for it, reasoning that when it was sick and weak it was much smaller, but now that it's healthy and strong it's reached its full potential. That would also give it an extremely useful trip attack fitting for a companion that only gets to make one attack each round.

As for items, usually animal companions get hand-me-down items that the party grows out of. It can use any item that a humanoid character can use, as long as it has the body part for it, though anything but a collar and barding would look a bit silly. Generally something basic like a Ring of Protection, Amulet of Natural Armor, Belt of Strength, and Cloak of Resistance would be best. Later on you can hire NPC spellcasters for a Greater Magic Fang and Permanency for it, both at a caster level of 20th if possible for a higher Dispel DC. At the standard rates (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#spell) the Greater Magic Fang +5 on its bite should be 600 gp, and the Permanency should be another 8,500 gp, so 9,100 gp total to give its bite attack a +5 enhancement bonus.