WC#584 The Rule of Turds

I just want to begin by stating I mean no disrespect. But it hasn't rained here all week, and so I started looking through my archives, and that can always be dangerous.

I found this picture I took July 22, 2009, for an Intro to Digital Photography course I enrolled in at Waubonsee Community College when getting back into photography after a long absence. The assignment was the composition elements of "Rule of Thirds" and "Depth of Field".

We had an old dog, Buster, who had bad arthritis and couldn't walk from our deck down into the yard to do his business, and it had just rained that afternoon, which is clearly consistent with this weekly theme, and I'd had a couple of pops so I took this picture. Please see the larger version.

All comments and critique welcome, especially as to whether you think I managed to embody the two assignment topics well, and also how about my frame? I debated how to set the hue and value.

Pentax K100D Super (6MP), Pentax 50mm1.4 at f/4.0, ISO 800, 1/500s, hand held SR.