...can't get a decent pitcture of the dog

You want too much for a puppy under one year! (correct me if I'm wrong: isn't he still a puppy?) If you want to take still photos with your dog, you must start teaching him the 'wait!' command. After you taught him to sit, delay the moment when you give him the reward, and use the word 'wait!'. Count to three, then give him the reward. Repeat this a few training sessions, then increase the time he must wait until he receives the reward. Soon, you will come to the performance of him waiting for 30 seconds or so, and this is enough for you to grab the camera and take a nice picture of him. Here's a picture of my dog, waiting for the treat:

I think you need a better camera to capture a young dog's picture. They seem to be in move all the time - well, except for the time they sleep. With a good camera, you can capture still pictures of your dog even if he moves. What kind of camera do you have?

Lol. I take horrible pictures in general especially of dogs. They just move around too much. It's not like you can say cheese and your dog will pose and smile for you. I think the trick is to just take a bunch in quick succession and hope a good one will eventually be taken. I entered my boyfriend's dog into a photo contest and she got 58th. My boyfriend had taken the picture with his phone and she actually smiled for that photo. Her smiling is when she opens her mouth and you can see her tongue. She is a pug so she generally just looks really sad with her mouth closed.

why dont you use automatic continue shooting feature in your camera? it's great feature, we can choose after that which the best capture from all of that. or may be should learned from cesar millan first..hehehe.. with pet we have to standby anytime for good moment because we never expecting and never knew when great moment came. it's harder than sport area. Im still learned too about this because make a capture from trip was easier than with pet.