Gorgeous, shoots :-) my cocker is the most cuddly, affectionate, loyal dog I have ever known. Although he nearly gave me a nervous breakdown the first year (and I don't say that lightly!).
Pasta, it's awful, you need to take as much time as you need. Sometimes it hits you from nowhere, and it does get better xx
One thing I've noticed recently- and it is an observation, rather than condoning or approval as such ... it may or may not help.
Dogs are now worth a lot of money... quite suddenly, really, and there are so many free advertising sites, that it seems pretty much everyone wanting to offload a dog, for any reason, will first try to sell it... a few hundred or thousand is more tempting than giving one away. So the free sites have thousands of dogs needing new homes. Including Trusts and Rescues.
By the time a dog gets gets as far as a Rescue centre nowadays, it seems to be because they have either never had a "proper" home, or they have, but were unable to be "sold". Either way, and just rationally, I would guess they will have a higher proportion of problems, and maybe need experience. I got one of my dogs from gumtree, the evening before she was going to a shelter. You have to be careful, only pay by bank transfer, so it is traceable. But looking at other people with new dogs... this is, rightly or wrongly, what seems to be happening. Which is maybe why the rescues are not only offering fewer, but you now need to join waiting lists, where they used to throw them at you two at a time...
Just a current observation, that's all.