On the first image with both Bassets, I really like the head tilt of the doggie on the bottom left. She looks curious. On the second image, it looks like there is more light on the doggy's back end than on her face.
Thanks for sharing your photos. I have two Basset Hounds, one tricolor and a lemon, and I have a problem wherein the lemon Basset always blinks when my flash fires. I have tons of pictures of her with her eyes closed! Needless to say, she is a natural-light-only photo subject.