Dog? References? Letters of Recommendation?

Dog?
I have a growing desire to have a dog as a companion. My wife has had companion dogs during our married life and they seemed to provide her with a great deal of love and affection, and were great friends to her and were fun to be around. The last dog I had was a German Shepherd mix when I was in my early teens. He started out being mine when my family lived out in the country, and then when we moved into the city we made a decision to put him on a run in the medium-sized back yard and that just did not work out. He became agressive and loud. I did not understand much about dog behavior in those days, and although I tried to do my best at caring for him it actually fell to my mother to do most of the work while I was in school and she was not into it. One day when I came home from school my dog was gone. I was devastated, lonely, angry and confused. My parents told me they had given him up for adoption. They did not discuss this with me at all before giving him away. I did not believe them and I told them I thought they had him killed and although they assured me that a man had come to pick him up and taken him to a farm in the country, I did not believe them. After about 2 weeks they agreed to drive out into the country so I could see him for myself. There he was, on a chain, on a small run down farm far off the beaten path. I am still sad today. I am working on healing that experience and am considering trying again with another dog that could be mine. I am not sure yet so I will be hanging out with dogs and their owners and doing more research. At the moment, the breed that interests me the most is the Tibetan Mastiff (see hyperlink above). We will see what happens.

References?
I am putting together a short list of people that I want to be references for me during my job search. This is much harder than I had anticipated and the professional networking organization that I belong to has also warned me to be very careful before listing someone. I'll know more after I complete the spreadsheet today *:-)

Letters of Recommendation?
I am also putting together a short list (much much shorter!) of people that I will ask to prepare letters of recommendation for me for the two jobs which I have applied for. This is a daunting task as well, but somehow I feel better about it because I only need 2 per job, and I can have more dialogue about what will be in the letter prior to publishing them.

Movie Recommendations:
"Storyville" (1992) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Kavanaugh Q.C., Disk 2, Set 1 (1995) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential for healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential for healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.