Great shot dsiegel5151. And it is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say: in a picture like this, shot wide open often produce better results.

Yes, the nose and most of the hair are out of focus. But for this reason you had centered the attention in the sight of the dog. With a large deep of field, you would have captured more details of the head but -firstly- in a portrait like this I don't think those details are needed. On the contrary, you would have loosed the softness of the hair.

And secondly, no matter the number of blades, the light spots in the background would be more focused. I don't think focus is needed in this area. It's hard to say without comparison, but I think you had chosen the best aperture in this case.