Hi SHR - This is my advice:
It is vital you go out of your way to socialise a puppy with other dogs and continue to do so otherwise you could easily get a dog that goes into meltdown (agression, or fear aggression) everytime he comes across one, which is very stressful for everyone.
IMO, a dog's personality is largely determined by genetics, so really check out the parents' temperaments. There is a series of about 10 puppy tests that can indicate what type of temperament the dog will be likely to have and I'd do these before selecting a pup in the future.
We love our dog, a lab, to bits, we feed him chicken, he sleeps on the bed with us and, as long as he gets at least an hour and a half of off lead exercise a day he's very laid back, probably because we're laid back with him. Dp works funny hours and often doesn't get up until nearly midday, Ddog sleeps on the bed until dp gets up - no freezing early mornings for us! He is fine left on his own for a few hours and doesn't utter a peep (we leave football on the tv for him). He has the complete run of the house, sits on the sofa etc and that suits us fine but he's not a dominant dog, if he was, I imagine we'd have to impose a lot more rules to show him who's boss.
He can be a pain in the arse, and is a huge responsibility and a tie, but we have a lovely very doggie lady who can look after him for a few days if we want to go away somewhere we can't take him.
I agree that the dog's care will probably be down to you, so if you don't have a fundamental love for dogs, it's going to be a real burden, the dog will be unhappy and probably display unwanted behaviour as a result.
Lucy5