Chris, your post processing is about exactly what i saw in your images, in other words you did exactly what i though and explained, and thus the reason for my comments.

I'm only one person, i have my likes and disslikes just like everyone else. I think you over did the portrait look - it's obvious and to me it just needs toned down a bit thats all. Some like it some dont. I think you have some great images that could be better that's the point of my comments.

as for contrast, it's obvious you did not touch it, but if anything you should have. that's the point. In my view, you over processed and in some cases missed the critical aspect of what maybe you should have processed - the contrast in the dog.

Every image has a plane of focus. when you blur every thing but the subject, you remove the plane of focus especially if there's back ground and the subject is standing on the ground or among items like grass that should be in focus. like I said, blurring is okay for some things but you have to be careful about removing elements in the image that our brains expect to see. So much of photography is psychological and happens in the brain that when we see something that's not right we notice it, even if we cant explain it.

in any event, keep at it. It's all a learning process, sharing is party of learning for each of us.

Thanks for sharing and keep bringing your images to the table.

Tony