Amazingly, when you ask people how and why they chose a particular dog or breed of dog, most confess it was a random choice. Maybe their kids had been pestering them for a dog for a while, and one day they just decided to go get one; maybe someone down the street had a dog who had puppies and they took one; maybe they were passing a pet shop and fell in love with a fuzzy face in the window. Although these can all be ways to bring a wonderful dog into one's life, they can also be recipes for disaster — for the people and for the dogs.