Dan: it appears from pics above that all three canards of yours have rather high foreplane loading..! I deduct that from your placement of the main gears. In particular the big one on the left in post #2 - still with the nosewheel on the ground..!! Is there any possibility for you (or me) to calculate your foreplane loadings..??
Regarding placement of the foreplane vs. the main wing "conventional canardology" maintains that a high foreplane is better since the downwash goes over the wing rather than under it.
Further as you so correctly said it: "the trick is to land faster"....I fully agree but I do not like that. Would be nice to be able to land it like a delta with very high aoa but that is not easy to obtain.
Please have a look at the Su 47 Berkut in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1wXsygQTVA
and enjoy the slooooooow speed forward with high aoa and the canard flap just "flapping" like mad at 1 min 25 to 40 seconds into the video......nice..!
..Cheers/Harald