I decided to finally do one of these. As a matter of fact, this is the very first photograph that I've done any kind of major editting to as I've been rather intimidated by layers.
Here it is:
Process in PSE 5:
1) Created a duplicate layer.
2) Selected the dogs in the layer.
3) Used the Shadows and Highlights tool to lighten the shadows and dark areas.
4) Applied base Noise Reduction.
5) Created a duplicate layer.
6) Inverted the selection so the snow was selected.
7) Used Shadows and Highlights to recover some of the detail in the ground.
8) Flattened the layers.
9) Cloned out the branches. It was particularly difficult on the large dog.
10) Saved progress.
11) Added a small highlight to the smaller dog's eye so the face wasn't completely black.
12) Selected the background, i.e. everything except the dogs.
13) Applied the Underpaint filter and played with the settings until I liked them.
14) Inverted the selection so the dogs were selected.
15) Applied the Pallet Knife filter and adjusted the settings until I liked the effect. Basically, I tried to retain as much of the photographic quality of the dogs while making them pop a bit from the background.
16) Saved the progress.