Sadly I know just how bad it is to lose a special 'heart dog' when there isn't another canine in the family to provide that essential sense of continuity and meaning. This happened to me 23 01 09 when Angel needed to be PTS when her CRF symptoms became just to dire for her to go on. I'm a guy who is not normally used to doing things like crying and walking up the hill to the church etc but I did all of that on the day Angel went. I think an extra special dog needs a special kind of approach, full-on and let everything go, so that the natural healling process of greiving can get going. I'm new here so nobody will know how special Angel was, nor anything of her rescue story - if you visit pbase.com and type in 'fast angel' it will take you to her photo gallery. (pic attached running along the surfline)
And it wasn't easy coping in the weeks after - no dog in the home = a huge deep hole of emptiness. About 3 weeks out I decided I needed another greyhound and took a little black and white girl on from a rescue. It wasn't straight forward and it looked like it wasn't going to work out because of a high prey drive for small animals and a very hard eye on little dogs. (My dogs ultimately need to be able to be off leash for a while to play with their friends in the park.) So again, putting the dog's needs first and before she bonded, she was returned to the rescue. Now I'm mentioning this because if I had been stronger (longer out from losing Angel) I might have had confidence enough to turn that dog around with regard to knowing that small dogs are proper dogs. So it felt like another bereveavement! I think I'm saying don't go there too soon. After another few weeks I did manage to sucessfully adopt 'Peggy' who came here as an initially fearful and spooky little greyhound. With the help of calming signals she was drawn out of that state and became able to live a noraml rescue greyhound life. What am I saying here? A challenge is actually a good thing after you've lost a 'heart dog' because you'll be drawing on everything your dog taught you to help the new one settle in. Respectful, right, and another Grey saved. You may not get another 'heart dog' again, ever, but at least you'll be back to where you need to be.
A few years ago when our Great Dane was getting old we took on a little Borzoi puppy - the Great Dane taught it everything and went on to live to 12 which is fantastic for one of those big dogs. I'll try to do the same next time.
So hang in there and don't let that grief bottle itself up, wait just until you're strong enough to adopt another and actually stand up for it no matter how difficult it may be. It might be a month, it might be 4, but with Spring just here it's a great time to get out and about and have those shared experiences that help create a bond. It won't detract anything from your lost dog's memory, just give it continuity and added meaning,