i think the trapper and shepherd should have an animal trade. like the trapper could get a wolf or two and then slowly over time more wolves show up and you can assign them to help your warriors or even be a small combat unit thing with no levels. you could use the other animals you raise to feed them. the new class idea is a blood mage. they would be promoted from the warrior, the blood mage would use health as its attacking resource, making all stats useful for this class. int would make them use less health per attack . body for the health increase and willpower for the health regen and for story wise make them more resistant to the pain of blood loss they could give the wolfs,goblins and, zombies a chance to drop a vial of blood maybe 5% you would need this to make the promotion item. you would need 5 vials of blood 2 wood and a level 5 carpenter to make it. also i feel like if a hearthling dies on nights where zombies attack or when necromancers come they could go for the graves of the dead hearthlings and try to eat or raise them.
Training large animals like wolves is for the future beastmaster class.