I'm trying to develop a method that will work for me in my photography. This is the first acceptable faux-HDR I've attempted that I did not delete. I've not been able to bracket the way HDR suggests so I have used Lightroom and adjusted the exposures there while exporting each one as a tiff. I'm using CS4 Extended to merge and I'm not getting the results I'd like to see.

I downloaded Topaz Adjust and I got a little closer with this latest. My biggest bother with this photo is how dirty it seems but cutting noise cuts the detail I do like seeing in the dog's shoulders. The halo bugs me also but not as much as the noise.
I've attached a small copy of the image.
Regards and thanks in advance.