The dog is placed in the centre of the photo - I think it would work better if the dog was more towards the right - anywhere but centre

and perhaps zooming in a little closer to catch more of that lovely expression on her face.
The photo in post 4 - I think this would have worked better if you had zoomed in so you just got the two dogs together (omitting the back view). Just as an experiment, crop out the left of the photo up to just before the white fur of her neck and paw and perhaps the space on the right and see what you think because I feel that if you had got in closer, this would have been a nice portrait.
I am pretty new to photography myself though so I may well be wrong!