I will highly recommend/second Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, but only if you have a VERY HIGH tolerance for extremely whiny POV characters and everything-ever-goes-wrong syndrome. I had just enough of this tolerance to finish both FitzChivalry trilogies, but for me it was a very hard task made bearable primarily by wonderfully loveable secondary characters. The Mad Ship trilogy, set the same world, is so much better in my opinion, but it lacks psychic canid bonding.