Fran, a few things to check, or check again if you already have: Is the dog a 'real' 3D object or is it a picture? The dog does still have depth in all dimensions right.(He's not .01 bu in the x axis for example) The dog is actually on the walkway and not floating above it. (check from a side view) The shadow isn't hiding behind the cylinder lying across the doorway. Try this, select the dog, only the dog, and go into solo mode. (lower right corner of the screen, 5 buttons look like a vcr, the center one hides everything not selected) create a plane directly under the dog, and give it matte_grey or some other basic texture. The lights in the scene, although not in solo mode with you, still cast their light. Do some renders from different angles and see if the shadow is somewhere unexpected. At some point you should change the material on the dog to a preset just to double check that. I can't remember what all you said in the other thread so I might have repeated something you've tried. Skip all that, can you post a screen grab of the dogs material settings?