does anyone know of a good tutorial that specifically addresses animating a dog walking? I've tried using the pre-loaded animations, but they do hideous things to the poor dog's body... as always, your help is most appreciated.

You'll need an animation specifically designed for the dog (or something close, anyway).

There aren't a lot of these for the animals. If you can't keyframe the animation yourself, Credo Interactive sells a set of fifteen Poser dog animations as part of its Animania collections.

thanks for the lead!

Ouch!