I've not read those yet, though they're lurking on my get-round-tuit List of Doom. But my recollection from dropping in on EB's journal when it was being written is that it was indeed intended as more of a deliberate deconstruction of all the telepathically-bonded-animal-companion-wish-fulfillment stuff in Lackey, McCaffrey etc. -- so while I find the idea very interesting, I'm still curiously looking for examples where it's played straight, just with dogs instead of cats/horses/cats/dragons/cats/hawks/cats/etc....