Kathy - I fell into a trap of worrying about the camera settings too much that I forgot the composition. Indeed I went back to Auto settings for a while just to get my compositions better..........
I wonder if that took place on #1 - I would have loved to see the dog in full, especially the paws.
Maybe similar on #2 (where the pipe across the top could have been lost and more dog on show) and again on #4 with just a degee or two lower angle of composition?
But these have a much better sharpness to them and proof you are making sound progress - keep it up Kathy - well done.
John