Better Beast Masters

Animal companions will not sit and wag their tales while you get eaten by a dragon.

You can use your bonus action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, or Help action. If you don’t issue a command, the DM will determine the most likely action the animal takes, this will most often be continuing the last given command..

If the beast dies, you can obtain a new companion by spending 48 hours magically bonding with a beast that isn’t hostile to you and that meets the requirements.