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I agree with you on the position/composition of it, with the dog not being centered in the frame, makes it appear to be hot on the trail of something that its sniffing out. Too bad there weren't some tracks in the snow to go along with that.
It does look a little dark and flat to me. A quick levels and curves tweaking should be able to remedy that.
mwitt, i think it is good that the dog is walking into the frame, and not centered. Not a bad comp. i agree with the comments about adjusting the levels, as the picture looks dull and flat. the snow, at least some areas of it, should be white or close to it. It is mostly gray here.
Look forward to seeing more from you.
Good looking Lab. If this is your 'pup' you have lots potential photographic opportunities! I feel Labs are some of the most photogenic dogs.
Grey snow is of course from underexposure. Set your camera to +1 Exposure Compensation when going out to photograph in the snow. It is a start. There may be a need for more or less with brighter or contrastier situations. Digitallly the histogram will be good guide to how effective the exposure is, but with film you will have to learn how the emulsion of choice responds.
Try some action photography if you can with this pooch. Frisbee, fetching, playing with sticks or bumpers are all starting points.
A labrador retriever swimming in a lake on a day with a great sky can make for classic timeless photography. I'm a dog person and therefore rather biased.
Best wishes, keep the photographs coming and you do have a good compositional beginning here, but it does need some 'technical' work. Good luck and let us know if we can help !
edited to add:
You might check out some of bev's work in the Nature forum. She has some very high quality dog images and also trains dogs, birds, etc. (an inside joke, but she does train dogs I believe).