Romney, during the debate, said that he wanted to address the issue of female employment by hiring a woman, so he had people bring him "binders full of women".
In truth, if anyone else had said it, it might not have become so memetic, but when his stance of dealing with inequality in the workplace is "I hired a woman once"... this happens.
Also, I think the issue with the dog wasn't just that he terrified the poor animal, but that he attempted to shrug it off.