I've had dogs all my life (apart from when I was married), but the last one, although the shortest lived, was undoubtedly the best. He'll take some replacing.
The biggest issue we have though is that neither of us are youngsters. Big dogs take a lot of handling, but neither of us are small dog lovers. At present we're talking about Japanese Akitas (as Spencer was) or German Shepherds (we've had two of them together and several each before we got together). But put a big brown eyed puppy in front of her and anything might happen.
Of course it'll fit; you just need a bigger hammer.