[M_Six]

Too much noise and posterization in mine.

Hreed, you also need to think about depth of field when you set your aperture. That shot has a thin DOF and your second dog is out of focus. A smaller aperture (like f8 or f11) would have kept both dogs in sharp focus and help to reduce blowing out the sunset detail. Your shot is at ISO 250. You could have pushed that to 400 or 800 and still have had the speed needed to shoot at f8.

Instead of shooting in auto mode, try AV mode and set your aperture to get the DOF you want. It's all a matter of practice. I try to shoot every day (although it doesn't always happen) so I can try new things and see how they work. You'd be surprised how fast you can learn better technique.