Shooting a black and White dog...

[ck8l4]

So I have gone through and read the whole thread on shooting a black dog (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=664494) and understood most of the concepts of that. Unfoutunately my dog is a black and white dog so I am guessing following the traits set in there will lead to blowing out the whites and such.
It seems that if I meter for the white on my dogs fur I lose all the detail in the black such as this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3503/3190163746_b512a086ae.jpg
or
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3561/3458258090_bb09505d9c.jpg
Now with a bit of post processing I can bring the blacks out a bit more so I get detail there however I feel as if I am cheating in doing that. Do any of you here have any advice on how to get detail in the blacks and the whites of a dog at the same time?
Thanks

[advaitin]

Digital is like shooting with slide film. You expose for the highlights. And in postprocess you raise the detail in the black. This is not cheating. It is the nature of the beast.

[deci]

Digital has less tolerance for extemes than film, but even with film a lot of dodging and burning was done in the developing room, so your not really doing anything different. Learn how to use DPP to the max if thats what you use.

[tdodd]

In that second picture the "whites" in the dog's fur do not look very white at all. The dog is backlit against a bright sky and it seems like you are underexposing the dog in order not to blow the sky, or the camera is doing it for you. Find a better background that does not compete with the dog in terms of brightness. You also need to get some light on the camera side of the dog. By the look of things you are shooting from the more shaded side of the dog. What would have happened if you'd switched to his other side and photographed with the wall as a background instead of the sky?

Instead of shooting a black and white dog you might start off practicing with a white and black dog. It might be a bit easier ;)

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4_R8TkwT74w/SnSQpY4sHzI/AAAAAAABInQ/zp7CqqGa4oA/s800/20090317_153236_2348_LR.jpg

I have tweaked this a little in Lightroom.

[MelisaP]

I live by the "expose to the right" method. I push my highlights as far as I can without losing them. Then your whites are white, and your blacks aren't underexposed. If you need to bump a little bit of fill light in you can without looking bad. :)