My oldest daughter just graduated from high school last weekend. For her final project in Advanced Art I encouraged her to do an oil painting. She has only done one other oil painting ever and I wanted her to try again. The first one was of a horse and didn't turn out too bad, but I think she really out did herself on this dog portrait. He looks quite a bit like our old dog Taz. BBP, I also thought you might like a look-see at this one as you had a similar pup in your life.
Enjoy