I'm a bit disappointed in my Hero pet training

I decided to to train 2 Hero pets to Dire..I got a White Tiger and a Dune Lizard, both lvl 5. I took away my heroes real skills, gave them low lvl weapons they weren't trained in, raised their Beast Mastery to 12, and gave them pet skills...this way the pets were always doing a lot more damage than their owners. So we get to lvl 11 and both pets turn aggresive..so far so good..I continue training them to lvl 15, and wtf, 1 stays aggresive and the other goes Elder...both should have gone to Dire imo. So what gives..is there a chance they will go Dire at lvl 20 ? I thought that after lvl 15, pets did not evolve anymore.
Thanks...

Dire means - The pet is the cause of the kills, and doesnt tank.

Did you tank all the damage?

I've raised dire pets for my heros before (by accident actually). It involves tanking all the damage with my character.

No..my char only intervened when nescessary or to get the fighting going, then backed off and let the pets do the work.
Does this mean that my char needs to do the killing while the pets just look on ? (if I take weapons off the pet owners, they won't attack).
Thanks

You take the damage from the enemy.

Pets cause the damage against the enemy.

Blinding helps a lot.

I used Elona minotaurs and blinded them with throw dirt and let the pet do the killing.

Guildwiki - Guide to evolving a Dire Pet

Thanks..I've read up on all of it..also....

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content....php#Evolution

..but there seems to be a lot of trial and error in the methods.
Thanks

I did my early training at Kryta and then Elona, although trying to get 1 Minotaur to attack is problematical..they all bunch up and you end up with 3 on you. ...I was training 2 pets at a time..maybe I should just train 1.
Thanks for your input.

Interesting, I didn't know you need to tank the damage for them to evolve into Dire status.

One problem I've noted is that quite often my char is not attacked..the Minotaurs go for the pet or the pet's owner, who in this case happens to be a Monk, and I can see by the pets health bar that it's taking damage...so there seems to be lots of variables out of your control.

Congrats on your Elder pet. I've been trying to figure out how to consistently do that.

[wiki]Life Barrier[/wiki][wiki]Essence Bond[/wiki][wiki]Symbiotic Bond[/wiki][wiki]Life Bond[/wiki]

If you know how to play a proper tank, you'll know you to pull a mob into a tight ball using the terrain, and use damage mitigation or reduction.