In my old neighborhood, a family had a pair of lab/newfy's. They were as tall as horses and outwieghed me. Great dogs, but too much to handle. Full raingear slobberguards and hearing protection were a must.
Sad thing, after the puppy stage, they were largely ignored in a 12x12 pen. I hate that.
My sister's dog slobbers a lot as well. He also sheds like crazy. He's nine now and they adopted him about three years ago, so he's pretty mellow. And he's an inside dog.
I don't see the point in owning a dog if you're going to keep them locked up in a pen away from the family all the time.