Opportunities for pet tanking?

[Zuldin]

First of all, I wanna say hello to everyone. I've been using petopia for quite some time now but just today I made a forum account.

On to the topic now, I recently got my hunter to 85 and I always wanted to go and hunt rare pets. I recently added to my collection Terrorpene and Gondria. Now, I always wondered how could a pet tank succesfully a heroic and thought I'd give it a shot with Bubbles. I went to big red rhino, found a specc and off I went. The problem is now, I don't have any opportunities to tank. most heroics pugs won't let me. So, I thought I'd come ask here. Where do you guys use your tanking pets?

[Tsuki]

I mostly use a tanking pet when soloing, and being overwhelmed by a large ammount of mobs, or when trying to take down one stronger one. Heroics however should be left to the tank, as they most likely have experience and a larger bar of tanking skills. However, if a tank dies, it isn't a bad idea to try to pop in the pet to prevent a wipe.
If pets were meant to be an equivalent to player tanks, then hunters would be able to assign themselves as such. (And that would be chaotic)

So basically, tank pets are best for when you are going to solo or maybe duo with a squishy or some such, as a tank wouldn't be around anyway.
The last thing a Tank wants is to loose threat; that's what a Tank's job is. However, this doesn't mean you can't use a tank pet in a heroic. If you want, you can spec the pet up for offensiveness, and just make sure to turn off growl, and any other threat generating skills.

[Nightsights]

i've tanked the robot boss in H Deadmines.

i've read in a recent thread that a gorilla can tank Priestess Kilnara(panther) and it can manually interupt her tears of blood aoe.

[Lisaara]

I had to kite the adds in Blackrock Caverns. *pets Iroh, the red Madexx*

[peanutbuttercup]

As someone above said, in heroic 5 mans you'd usually only get to tank with a pet if the actual tank dies.

I have pet tanked Slabhide in H Stonecore before because I know the fight very well, and the PUGs in my group agreed to it.

Other current content where pets can tank: Bosses in regular Cata dungeons like Slabhide and Alturius. Argaloth in Baradin Hold (I haven't tried it). Some raid level adds like parasites in Magmaw or adherants in Chogall.

Of course pets can tank a lot of older content. You'll find that they often outsurvive you.

[Kalliope]

Zanzil and Bethekk are good bosses for a pet tank in ZG.

[SpiritBinder]

Zanzil

I've managed this one, but it was pure luck. The tank when down, then then the healer with not much left on the boss. I pulled out my tank pet and got it to pick up and tank the boss. I really thought it would go down fast but the other dps (boom chicken) seemed to read my mind and just started spamming heals on my pet while we dps'ed. With the blood of the rhino points talents and the healing glyph, all the heals combined where just enough to keep my pet up and pull us over the line. I would not recommend it, but it's doable

[Kalliope]

*nodnods* Ursa's done pretty decently there too. We didn't make it on that attempt because a) Ursa didn't get outside heals due to deaths and b) the group of zombies spawned and I couldn't MD them to him due to having to kite the still-active berserker. Ughhhh.

[Shirubia]

Haven't pet tanked any instance yet, but every time I am in the area and someone is looking for a tank, I tank the Crucible of Carnage (It is a good practice)

[Craich]

I've had a couple of instances where I've had to quickly call Fossey out to tank after the tank carked it (both occasions were glorious with the fallen cheering on the "icehowl" gorilla) but otherwise not so much. PuGs these days seem more like single-player with 4 "NPCs" than an actual good time.

I recently tamed Arcturis (thank you magic luck thread) with the intention of soloing AQ40 (if you search for Princess Huhuran on Wowhead, a neat fellow has put up a guide to solo in the comments) and then I will probably look into some other challenges like MC - dunno about BWL or any others.

I do remember the days of "Pet Pull!" in MC though.