I like the idea of a quest. Something like where during the quest you are asked to spill your own blood to awaken the dormant dragon and it asks if your really willing to give up some of your own powers to revive the dragon. That would let people know about the price to be payed for the pet. It would be kind neat if there was a quest to undo the bound and regain your powers and both are repeatable. This would keep everyone happy right? Don't want a pet pick the "Hellz no get that knife away from me" option. If you want a pet though you can get one but if you decide later on to not have it you can get rid of it. Granted I don't think flip flopping between no pet and pet is a good idea so make the quest somewhat a pain to do.

Allowing us to "paint" our pet would be pretty neat too maybe even have different models for them that are given at random or choice. That way we don't have the same copy and paste pet everywhere we go.