[PREFACE: This is written from a Hunter's observation of combat issues, but the same is almost certainly true for all pet classes because they all use the same mechanics / combat separation]
I hope this is okay to have a few things linked together in here. This is going to be a bit of an exhaustive list, but tl;dr will be that player and pets should have completely separate combat states at all times, unless one casts a spell on the other, or they actually enter combat with something. ||| As it sits right now, the Pet and Player almost exclusively SHARE combat (sometimes it's possible to send pet in, gain combat on hunter despite not doing anything, and then leave combat with feign death and not gain it back, but you still shouldn't get combat in the first place), with rare changes in combat state if using Feign Death shenanigans (this includes snake trap causing the hunter combat when attacking targets >_<)
1: Also, as far as PvP goes, sending a pet to attack someone should give both the player and the pet a psuedo-combat state, where "Target is in combat" message should play when someone tries to sap either of them, but there is no actual combat.
Souce: http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/118924-combat-bug-with-pet/#entry1691310
2: Pet damage combat, When your pet deals damage the hunter goes into combat. How it should work: When your pet deals or takes damage it should not affect your combat state, unless the pet casts a spell on you.
Sources:
Edit: As I was writing this up it seems that WCM is currently offline for some reason, the links should be fine when the website actually comes back up.
[PREFACE: This is written from a Hunter's observation of combat issues, but the same is almost certainly true for all pet classes because they all use the same mechanics / combat separation]
I hope this is okay to have a few things linked together in here. This is going to be a bit of an exhaustive list, but tl;dr will be that player and pets should have completely separate combat states at all times, unless one casts a spell on the other, or they actually enter combat with something. ||| As it sits right now, the Pet and Player almost exclusively SHARE combat (sometimes it's possible to send pet in, gain combat on hunter despite not doing anything, and then leave combat with feign death and not gain it back, but you still shouldn't get combat in the first place), with rare changes in combat state if using Feign Death shenanigans (this includes snake trap causing the hunter combat when attacking targets >_<)
1: Also, as far as PvP goes, sending a pet to attack someone should give both the player and the pet a psuedo-combat state, where "Target is in combat" message should play when someone tries to sap either of them, but there is no actual combat. Souce: http://www.arenajunkies.com/topic/118924-combat-bug-with-pet/#entry1691310
2: Pet damage combat, When your pet deals damage the hunter goes into combat. How it should work: When your pet deals or takes damage it should not affect your combat state, unless the pet casts a spell on you. Sources:
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=152507 - @ 9:59 you see the pet attack and the hunter doesn't get combat, he only gets combat when he gets blinded http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=180949 - @ 3:35 the pet paladin is attacking the pet and the hunter leaves combat while the pala is attacking the pet http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=160065 - @ 1:34 Pet attacks but the hunter doesn't enter combat until he fires arcane shot http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=122825 - @ 3:20 Pet attacks, hunter doesn't enter combat
Edit: As I was writing this up it seems that WCM is currently offline for some reason, the links should be fine when the website actually comes back up.
Edit: Fixed a few typos.