Trying to replicate the Blender Cloud dog I'm taking a stab at modeling, and I want to do one of the cute dog on the Blender Cloud landing page.



I can cover rigging, but not modeling. Any tips on how to do this? I already tried flattening a sphere and thickening a long cylinder, but they didn't work well. 
I'm thinking brushes should work, but I'm not sure how I'd go along with that either. Any suggestions?
Sub-D box modeling

Dixey has a smooth surface with nice curves. 

Easiest way comes into my mind is to block out the overall shape and use the subdivision surface modifier to smooth the blocks. Make sure to use the Catmull-Clark algorithm.

Onece built the base mesh, it should be just a matter of refining the shape with more loopcuts, or you can even apply the modifies and use the sculpting tools to increase the bumpiness of certain ares.

Here's a possible result:



Notice how few polygons are used to control the surface.

Other possible techniques to built a base mesh to work with:


metaballs
skin modifer