Portrait of dog for C+C

[Dom6663]

I'm not as much asking for C+C on this photo in regards to composition (the crop kills the image I am aware) I am more interested in lighting and processing tips! But I will accept whatever criticism I receive.

I only had a few minutes to shoot this image, it was on the floor of my garage with no setup what so ever. I dropped a pillow on the concrete for my dog to sit on, turned on the garage lights, propped a gold reflector in front of the dog, which is what I assume he is staring at. Unfortunately I could only get a few shots before someone pulled into the garage and scared my model away, some of the others were framed well enough, but were too soft in focus.

For my flash I had to use a built in flash on my canon 40D. I put a layer of white paper towel over the flash to diffuse it. And then tried to selectively filter the flash by covering it with my free hand, and then opening up space in between my fingers to put the light in different spots.

As far as post processing, I reduced the noise,and did a custom omni lighting effect to again make the light more selective.

Camera settings:
Canon 40D
Iso H (3200)
1/60 Shutter Speed
Takumar SMC 50mm f1.8 shot at f2.8

Anyone willing to make edits/crops or altering the photo in anyway for my benefit can do so!