How to make a player allowed to interact with GeckoLib entities?

So what im trying to do is make a mod that allows the player to play with their pet.

But my question is, is it possible?

Their is a way i've seen other mods do it

but it seems quite annoying (Make Animations With A Player Model And Then Rip The Player Model From The Actual Player And Then Put It On The Entities Player Model When An Action Is Done It Will Play The Animation)

Anyways is their any better way to do this?

i want to make players be able to play with their pets.