Sharpness issues

I have been having problem getting really sharp shots with my 100-400 L IS lens. I have always thought I was shooting at too slow of a shutter speed so I keep boosting my ISO to enable faster shutter speeds but still having issues.
Do you think it's just the fact that I am not holding steady enough?

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It might be my eye sight but it look's like the Rock/Stone just in front of the dog is in better focus (well better than the dog) so you might have a front focus problem.

Are you setting the focus points yourself or are you letting the camera handle this? It looks like the focus for this shot landed on the grass to the right. Though it's tough to tell with such a noisy, compressed jpeg.

I had a single focus point and it was on his eyes. I am assuming it was a he... ;>

Try some shots with a tripod and timer delay so that the camera's absolutely still. If the shots are still too soft, it's not camera shake. To find out if your lens has a front focus problem as TTk suggests, google, "lens calibration chart." There's a good one out there designed by a Nikon guy, but it works fine with Canon lenses. You'll be photographing the chart at a 45 degree angle at the lens's widest aperture. It will show you if your lens is front or rear focusing or if it's spot on.

Never mind...had a brain fart.

Here's one I just took. Tripos, Timer Delay and no PP. I will search for that Len Calibration Chart.

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If you have a filter on the lens, can you try taking a few pics without it being on?

Also you haven't posted what shutter speed and focal length you used to take this shots at.

Tripod, Timer and 1/80 at f11
Robert turned me onto a very useful utility from Panda...IEXIF 2 and it was free.

http://www.opanda.com/​en/iexif/

Bob what camera model are you using with this lens?

Here's the result of the Lens Calibration Chart test.

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Terry
Canon 40D

Can you get a better focus manually?

Also, add mirror lockup to your test setup or use liveview.

Look's like it's back focusing a little (not much but enough) if you look above the birds head the number two is sharper than the birds head. IMO.

1/80sec is a bit slow for a moving subject and idealy you want to be either shooting at 1/400sec or faster - otherwise you need a flash (probably a better beamer attachment as well for 400mm) and whilst you will be capped at around 1/200sec the flash light burst will help to freeze motion.

I think you need to get some good lighting and take some test shots of a static subject to ensure that your lens is able to perform as well as it possibly can. Once we can elimination a possible lens softness (or incompataiblity with you camera) we can then work on where your settings/shooting style/editing are possibly failing you in getting the proper end result.