The day I brought him home (after an emergency trip to a groomer). He was 6 months old. I keep his hair longer now.

As far as black details, my trick it to shoot them a bit brighter, especially helpful if the dog is outside. With my camera I always use the LCD screen and I had a tendency to set my Shutter and Apeture to dark. My cat Lorca is tortoise color so there is a lot of black in her, she was my practice before Magic came into my life.
Then I use my post editing program and simply adjust the Levels to a point where the black gets blacker. This does not over saturate the shot and all details will remain. It is trial and error for me, no magic (pardon the pun) bullet.
Then I use Unsharpen Mask to tweak the final outcome. That's about it. If you are a Curves expert, it will do the same, but I find Levels work for me.