So, I've moved on from the hubub of moTU (a good first expansion BTW) and went onto all the DDO store items. Stumbled upon pets and bought a rat. First of all, they are nice but purely cosmetic...this is a problem imho and Turbine is severly limiting themselves by doing this.
Pets in other games have the dual function of being able to carry stuff (an extra few backpacks, depending upon the size of the pet) and help out in other minor ways. Although, pets are critical and are a huge component of other extremely popular MMOs with craft and war in it's name. I can understand Turbine's reasoning for not allowing pets to perform combat.
However, my suggestion is perhaps you can teach your pet a trick to say...pull a lever.. or retrieve an item.. or give an item it's carrying to someone else. I think this would add quite a bit to the pet experience rather then the useless appearence only pets we have now.