Experimenting with a new flash

I saved some money that I had been given for Christmas, my birthday, and money that I been paid back in the winter for getting called into work for 5 different "emergencies."   I decided to use it to buy a new flash for my camera.  I've had a DSLR for about 4 years, but I had never gotten a flash to use with it.  I have a Canon Rebel and I got a Canon Speedlite 580 EX II flash from Amazon.  It was $50 cheaper there than at our local camera shop.  It came in the mail today, and I took some photos of our dogs this evening.  I have always had trouble taking good pics of our bigger dog indoors.  Her photos taken indoor would almost always have "pet eye".  No more of that with the new flash.  Here are some of my favorite pics from this afternoon:

 Lily is intentionally out of focus.  I like this picture.

 I found that bouncing the flash off the ceiling worked best.  If I aimed it at the dog, the photo was too bright.  Since the flash is not bouncing right into their eyes, they don't mind having their pictures taken as much either.  I wish I had gotten one of these a long time ago!