Yep, he gets hit by a car, dies and replaced by an stereotypical "Italian guy"-like dog named Vinny. How about instead of killing off Vinny, Brian constantly watches his family over in heaven and comments on their stupidity during small parts of the show from now on in "Heaven". Yes, Brian was intelligent and loveable, he shouldn't have been killed off, but that's life. Dogs die, whether we want them to or not. To make the show interesting, they could make Vinny give up on the new family and join another family, but only one full of religious folks (to be ironic) to find meaning to his (Vinny)'s life.

And replace Vinny with a diva poodle named "McKinny" who had a rich billionaire lifestyle, lost it all due to a email-making scam artist. Have her sound like Kim Kardashian, but be somewhat intelligent (less intelligent than Brian, but not stupid like Peter Griffin, Meg and Chris) with a willingness to live among the Griffins and learn about how middle-class families live while coping with the change through yoga and doing mediation exercises she's learned. It would be funny.