I think you did a very nice job cleaning up the arms. I think if you invested in some show leads for these sorts of things, you would save yourself a lot of PS time. They zip out really fast.

I am not a fan of the wide angle distortion unless it is done for a funny effect, and is very extreme, almost fisheye. When it is done just a little, it looks like it was done on accident.

It is a pet peeve of mine though as I have always been very careful to keep the distortion to a minimum. I think being further away is less bothersome to the dogs too, same thing with small kids