I think this crop works just fine as you have it. I love the water in this - nice shot and editing to show off the differing textures of fur and water.
This version is beautiful and your editing has enhanced the image in every way except the crop, imho. I feel that the dog has nowhere to go, and that the original format is better. Forget the rules, they are made to be broken!
Thanks Kelli; I uploaded a 1000 pixel image thinking that would be larger than it would display, but it apparently displays the 1000 pixel image, so the "full sized" isn't larger. I'll upload a bigger one though in case someone wants to post a crop.
This looks adorable! I played with it but couldn't come up with a better crop either, when you rotate up you lose the reflection, when you rotate down you lose the wave. Sometimes the rules just don't apply. I think it looks great centered. When I click view full sized image though, it comes up the same size.