Not for you, for sure. And that is all it matters.
If you want to get the viewer more involved in your shot, make it more about the dog.
Crop the image closer to the subject and that will make the viewer emotionally closer to your dog. De-sat and darken the BG, make the dog the brightest and sharpest element of your image, open the shadows on his/hers right face and make the eye alive (that little sparkle on the eye will make a difference and will make a better connection with the viewer), and that will make your dog pop.
De-noise the image and warm up the light to make your shot more inviting.
I didn’t even think about how the door was taking away from the shot and to be honest thats where my eye kept going but didn’t realize. Thanks for the input that’s incredibly helpful!
When taking a photo of your pet it is a good idea to make sure everything you see in the photo is what you want. In my opinion I think there are too many distracting things in the background.
An example of a different crop to think about. I also worked the colors a bit and did some burning.
The eye is typically drawn to the lightest areas in the image. In your case, that's the lamp, and the open door. I agree that cropping in closer to remove those distractions is key.
