In Crimson Desert pets aren’t mere decorations. I assumed they’d be cosmetic, but dogs and cats actually pull their weight.
Taming requires 100 aff pts: petting = +5 (≤5x/day), feeding meat = +10 (≤3x/day). Fish barely moves the meter, so skip it. Expect the routine to take 2+ days (≈48 hrs) in normal play; the tut quest can speed things up.
Once tamed, an animal will scoop up nearby loot as you walk by — handy because world items don’t glow and the mini-map only shows them as a small gray cross. It will grab resources on the ground but ignores junk you drop from your inventory.
You can keep up to 30 animals in the pet menu, though only one can follow you at a time. Releasing a pet sends it back to its original taming spot, but not instantly. Also: there’s no naming option at the moment.