Very incongruous portrait. We expect to see a real dog, but we see a bronze dog instead. Dog's don't wear mortarboards, but this one does. And dogs hold bones in their jaws, not diplomas. You use selective focus to blur out the background, and you use largely indirect light (except for the burned area on the nose) to make the shot. I don't think the Canon Rebel has a spot meter in it, but if it did, you could expose on that highlight and hold the detail in it. The dog would get darker, and even more dramatic because it would be less visible and thus seem more real. You can simulate a spot meter by using your exposure compensation control. Just shoot at minus 1/3 of a stop, or minus 1/2 of a stop and you can get the same effect.