How to edit my photos

My favorite subject to shoot is animals, especially dogs and of course, my dog. I would love to make adjustments like adjusting the lighting on certain parts of her body, making her eyes brighter and cloning out things, for example, cloning her leash. I see others doing it all the time but I cannot figure out how to do such things. Are there any programs or tools in this programs that would be helpful? What I really need help on is cloning out things in the background, like a fence, and putting grass there so there is no distraction and brightening her eyes.

Well, a very good "starter app" is Photoshop Elements, and then begins a whole learing curve on photo editing.

You can download a free trial of Elements and use it for 30 days, just be prepared to jump into online turorials with a passion during that trial period.

And, I'd suggest a couple good books, for starters. Check out Amazon.com or a major local bookstore (Borders or Barnes & Noble) for the Elements book by Scott Kelby and the Elements "Missing Manual" book -- a search on Amazon for "elements kelby" and "elements missing manual" should get you quick results.

Once you have begun to "assemble the pieces", check back here and report your progress!

What software dou you use now?

Some Raw converters, like Lightroom2/3 can do local adjustments. For cloning out a background, Photoshop (Elements) or another pixel editor would be needed.