As a hunter, now lvl 20, I have tried a turtle, bear, and two cats. Not one of them gets nor holds agro. Everytime, in seconds my hunter is fighting melee. How do I make the pet get and hold agro?
My first toon, early WotLK, was a hunter. I got a Frostsaber just outside Ironforge. When it attacked any target, it kept agro forever. As a newb to the game, to almost any computer game, this was wonderful. I could stand back and shoot the target with out worries. Apparently this was added after Vanilla. At this point I am ready to start over with a warrior. At least they can handle melee fights.
You trained Growl, right?
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Go back to the hunter trainer, look for the pet trainer. Train all ranks of Growl and Stamina and Armor skills. Then use the slingshot icon to open the pet training interface to teach those to your pet.
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oh boy do i have some news for you my friend
(but seriously, do your pets have Growl? That should fix all your issues)
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This. I think it’s a little different than wrath, anything threat related isn’t really streamlined yet, all you have is growl really and how long your pet has been attacking vs you(who does more damage first) Having your pet go in and pull the mob first will bet you about the same results as wrath
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Also, this page is great:
https://www.wow-petopia.com/classic/training.php
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Lots of people saying to train growl which may be the issue.
As a side note I’ve found that turning off bite/claw and making sure they only spam growl around 28/29 when you start pulling aggro off a lvl 20 growl helps a lot. Once you get the next rank at level 30 it becomes more manageable.
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This level of complexity was removed by WotLK, or my memory from 10 years ago has failed. Thanks to all. Even with the great answers it took me minutes to find what to do. BUY for the NPC the Growl ability. Click on the Spellbook. Click the Beast Mastery tab. Right click the sling shot, and get a list of the abilities you bought in step one. Train your pet in them.
Man-o-man. Thanks again.
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I already know you didn’t spec beast master.
Don’t pick the glass cannon spec and expect your turtle to hold agro.
I’ve mained a hunter since BC and I am playing one now (I can’t figure out how to get my classic character to show here, so sorry for the monk.) Anyway. You can’t open the same way that you probably got used to in Wrath.
Ideal pull for me:
Hunter’s Mark
Send pet in
Serpent Sting
Arcane shot (if the pet seems to have aggro)
or Concussive shot (if you’re worried it will start running towards you)
Less ideal pull (too many people around)
Arcane shot/send pet at same time
Concussive shot
HM/SS/etc.
Wingclip is your friend if the mob gets in melee range. Hit it once with raptor strike, but you’re mainly trying to let your pet take aggro back and get out of there.
(Yes, obviously, train growl etc. But if you already have that trained and are still having trouble, it may be because you are too aggressive in your opening.)
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Boars are good at low levels. They charge right up to mobs instantly, and root them in place for 1 second.
Don’t go balls to the wall with damage. You don’t need to on non-elites. I find that even just using aspect of the hawk and hunter’s mark can let my auto shots grab aggro from my pet, so I just serpent sting normal mobs and auto shoot them down, sometimes I’ll arcane shot once or twice.
Really, you only lose like 5% damage per auto shot without those ranged buffs, but you lose alot of threat it seems.
Basically, you need to learn to cool it with the aggro generation. Treat your pet like a practice dummy for grouping with real tanks. You gotta let 'em get aggro first, sometimes.
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If training growl is not the problem and you are current with it, as some others have said it’s a timing issue. My Voidwalker has issues holding aggro at around 50% mob health. Also, be very mindful is growl is resisted. That’s pretty much a guarantee on you pulling aggro at that point.
You just need to get a great rotation going. What that looks like is up to you. After the initial growl what abilities do you fire off before you pull aggro? Try slowing it down a bit until the second growl goes off. Pet still have aggro? Ramp it up a bit to see how much damage you can do in-between growls without pulling aggro.
For example I have to send my VW to taunt. I can get off my immolate, curse, and corruption. However, if I cast shadowbolt or any other instant damaging attack, including a wand flick, I will pull aggro. So I need to wait for that second taunt and then I know I can cast 1 shadowbolt and begin my wand autoattack. I will always pull aggro by 25% but by then I take minor damage.
Anyway, hope this helped. Play around with rotations a bit and see what works for you!
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My hunter pet is now keeping agro as I expected. I was so ignorant of the Vanilla method of hunter pet training. Thanks one and all. Your helpful answers were just what I needed.
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right click the “sling shot” ?
what are you talking about?
I clicked on my spell book, clicked on my Beast Master tab, but don’t see any sling shot.
The icon for “Beast Training” looks like a slingshot.
And, in case you’re not sure where to look, it’s in the General tab, not Beast Mastery 
aggro is additive in classic with a running bank on the enemy. you have to send the pet in first and attack the mob first, then you go ham and by the time youre poised to pull threat the target is dead.
the other solution is to curb your damage output and just essentially auto attack and viper sting what the bots do.
https://www.wow-petopia.com/classic/training.php
Like everyone has said, you gotta train. Petopia is the shiz.
well in my spell book there’s nothing labeled “Beast Training”
It’s a slingshot in your general spell tab.