Do you see what I don't see

[Steven Sweeney]

Whoa, check this out:
YouTube Boxer

Freeze it at about 23 seconds and you'll get a VERY good idea of what you're dealing with here.

It may be that just lightening the value of the dark perimeter form will do the trick.

We're kind of sidling over into the "pet portrait" area, so that's probably about all I'll say about this, except that the matter of cropping ears and docking tails is extremely controversial, the practice being largely a "show dog" thing, so that's probably why you found relatively fewer images of "natural" ears.

[Allan Rahbek]

Pat,
I think that ,what's cheating your eyes, is that the photo was taken with a flash, so that the dark shadow in the ear has been lit. Normally the ear would be dark inside.

Edit:
This reference is more complex than first thought.
Notice the sun light on the girl - it's coming from the back, left - ten o'clock .

You see her cast shadow on the top of the dog's head. But you only see a narrow stripe of the sun light because the nearer of the dog's head is into a shadow from a tree or something.
The reason why it is so light is the flash light. You also see that the girl is heavy lit from the flash.

Stevens link was very helpful, it shows how the ears are hanging down. Maybe you could change the tip of the ear a bit and let it hang down in front in stead of behind the main ear?

[Patricia Joyce]

Hi Alan,
I believe the photo was taken outside in strong sunlight and the highlights are completely blown out. I always say I will not accept such images, but then the check comes and, well, we all have to eat. I finished this up. You can see it "down the line".

Steven, what a hoot that you found this YouTube. You are a gem! And it really helped answer the puzzle...