I dont think pets attacks are the main issue, but rather their survibability. You got some very cool ideas but whats the use if they're laying dead anyway? No other class has a mechanic that makes you lose half your damage for up to a minute because you lost sight of your pet for a second.
My suggestion would be to make it more like WoW(and let the flames begin!).
Give pets a big damage reduction to AoE, but have them be the exact same when focused. To take this a step further would be to make them do less threat and put a 10 point Trait that increases the threat they do. This way you can choose to have them as a straight DPS tool, or as a tank.