Thanks for the comments, as always I was uncertain about the crop, I will try a tighter one. It was certainly a good trip if you like African Wild Dog (which we do), we saw them on 7 out of 8 game drives and followed them hunting on 4 occassions, the youngsters ate well!
I would agree with tighter as the BG competes with the dog. Like the open mouth and tongue. I would suggest when possible, go for a low image too as the BG will be more blurred if it is distant.