Animal retop + differences between static vs deforming mesh

Sculpt edits:

After receiving some critique from lecturers on my sculpt, it was pointed out to me that the yes on my dog were too small. Especially for an animal like a dog where humans can gauge a lot of emotions from the eyes and eyebrows, making this area read properly was very important for the cuteness factor. This was the final sculpt vs before:

Before crit

After crit

Difference between static and deforming meshes:

When retopping my mesh for my animal, it was important to keep in mind the function of the mesh. The mesh had to be structure so that it would deform well when moving joints such as legs, the tail or the head of the animal, so I had to keep a couple of features in mind:

• Deforming meshes need a primarily quadded mesh to deform evenly, so most shapes in the mesh need to be 4 sided polys. 
• These Quads should form loops to make the mesh keep forms better. It also means that the mesh is easier to manage while retopping.
• The mesh needs very few triangles, limited primarily to areas of the mesh that wont deform much (like flat spaces or areas necessary to keep the loops in place)

These features differ from static or non-deforming meshes since they can implement triangles in their geometry easier. By not having these extra loops and geometry, these assets tend to be cheaper in vertice cost compared to deforming meshes.

Retop of my Shiba Inu:

I attempted the retop process initially and it was commented on that I was not including enough loops around deforming areas, so the mesh would not deform very well overall. I redid most of my initial attempt within the day, and this resulted in the final result below:

Facial geometry

Body Geometry

I made sure when I was retopping to make use of the conform tool and the relax tool to create a more even geometry density, since that also would help the model if I ever rigged it and would allow the silhouette to be more consistent to my sculpt overall. I made a very basic rig for my dog using the CAT rig method, and checked how my geometry handled the basic walk cycle provided in 3ds MAX 2020. I think overall the mesh deformed properly, especially considering at this stage I did not do any custom weight painting for my rig.