3.5 Druid: Help with an owl companion please

[ingenua]

Hi! I'm a newbie player and just starting my third game, right here in GITP: Rise of Darkness, DM'd by DemonWasp. Made myself a level 1 Druid, Kvenil, and a baby owl companion, Eui.

Then I realised a companion wasn't the same as a familiar. Now I'm trying to get my head around the mechanics of playing it ... through my interpretation of the Handle Animal skill. Need some clarification, please :)

Specifically, the idea of tricks. I chose seven for Eui (6 for 2 int + 1 for being a companion): Attack, Come, Down, Fetch, Heel (which I'm calling "Return"), Seek and Ride.

Few questions:

'Ride' is a homebrew. The trick gets the owl to ride on another person or creature as a mount. Eui's preferred mode of transport is to ride on Kvenil's shoulder rather than having to fly around behind her. With this trick I could get her to ride one of Kven's friends, as well. Is this reasonable for a trick?

But that makes 'Come' and 'Heel' basically the same thing, right? Or maybe it makes 'Heel' a combination of 'Come' and 'Ride on my shoulder like you usually do'. Or are they still different, and how?

If not, do I get to choose another trick? :P

Finally, if I send the owl out to 'seek' as in this situation, not being a sentient creature with communication skills, how would it show my character what it had found? A wolf could point, and in the forest where it was trained the owl could hover over what it had found or perch in the nearest tree, or just go and catch something small like a mouse. Here in a cavern full of tangled webs, I don't exactly want it to attack a giant spider (and I don't think even a baby owl is that silly). And what if it sees more than one? Is this workable?

Hope someone can help!

Ingenua

[Assassin89]

The owl could be trained to hoot whenever it sees something. But if it was a sentient being, I would worry about it refusing to go into certain places, like deserts and forests, and it being too late to warn you about danger. I would also dress said owl in a blue vest and monocle and name it Cedric.

[steam_mage]

if you using this ride trick i would lose heel as it is basically the same however i usually let druids who have taught their pet come (especially if its a bird) that they can use it to call their AC from a long distance away if they use a signal whistle or similar calling instrument.

as for the situation your in at the moment i would find it fair if you said you trained your owl to screech if it found something when seeking.

[ingenua]

Thanks muchly for all the responses! I will be showing this to my DM to see if he approves.

If I do end up giving up Heel, I am a bit hesitant about asking for another trick, as Ride is quite a bit more flexible than Heel ... but anyway, any suggestions for what kind of trick would be useful if I did get another one?