When I use strobes, I shoot manually. I'll meter the strobes with an incident flash meter and then set the aperture and shutter speed manually. If I'm at 10 feet from the subject and in a normal room, it's F8 @ 1/200 and ISO 200. I use a radio trigger which allows the 1/200 shutter speed synch.

Although I've been using these strobes for 5 years now both in the studio and on location, the settings haven't changed in any of the situations I've set up unless I wanted to shoot at a different aperture -- i.e. opened up to throw the background OOF for example, I power down the strobes appropriately until the flash meter gives me the right aperture.

Experiment with different lighting ratios to get the effect you prefer. There is no single right answer in lighting. It's a matter of knowing what you want and using the lights to get it. The nice thing about having your own dogs to experiment on is that you get to see the effects with live subjects. And the dogs get to become great models!

Most of all, have fun with it. Use two strobes at the same level. Vary the ratios. Try it with one. Set it up high or set it up low and see what it produces. Keep a notebook of what you try so you can recreate it any time you want.

As for white balance, I've never had any problem leaving it at Auto. I shoot RAW and balance in post-processing to 6500K. I've never had a problem with white balance.

Good luck,

Jim