I am interested in possibly acquiring an older dog and I was wondering what the basic process was behind import dogs??

I basically get that you find a breeder that can import dogs,and is well educated/experienced in doing so, but after that what generally happens?

Time-frame, customs, etc??

I think that I have found a few domestic (one like 30 min. from me, and that is awsome) breeders online that I am seriously considering, but I'm just not ready yet for various reasons, most importantly experience!! I'm going to join a relatively close club to get acquainted with the sports.

Thanks..

Adam,
I can only speak from my experience.
I imported a female from a breeder in belgium to compete in Schutzhund. She was 3 years old and DDr bloodline.I spoke to this breeder ,we had great communication , he spoke good english send me every video I wanted of this female.Long story short, I bought her, she arrived in L.A (in September) too hot to ship to Vegas. When I opened her crate I was pissed, she was small,sooo thin and she had a lump on her back leg.She was so scared of everything around her, I knew right off the bat that she was not going to be my dog.After my husband & I drove 5 hours back to our home I called the breeder and he reassured me that she is a great dog and that the lump is nothing of concerns.Gee you think he would have told me about that lump when I asked about her health!??!I look back on photos and videos and I could not see that lump at all, it was hard to see it cause in every video she is moving from a small distance and the photos never showed it either.Anyways I was not happy about my decision to buy this female from this breeder at all , and on top of that after e-mails back and forth to the breeder about my unhappiness he offered me another female at half price.Ya right ,I moved on and sold that female as a pet to a family and I bought another female from a smaller breeder in germany,I felt better about him then the other and ended up buying my female that I have now from that small breeder.He was honest and I could see he really cared about his dogs and had raised this female( I now have), the bad breeder(I feel) I think simply sold dogs for others.So becareful who you buy from !Ask a lot of questions. As far as shipping the person that is selling you the dog will arrange that .We had no problems with customs, it was very simple,no charges. Delta held my female in Atlanta overnight(coming from frankfurt)never once called us to let us know ,she was supposed to arrive in the evening and she arrived in Vegas in the next morning.(this was October)I was very nervous about it but at least I got the female I wanted and I really like her a lot.
As for the other one I still see her now and then and she has come out of her shell and has gained a lot of good weight and she looks so much better but not what I had in mind for Schutzhund.I hope I didn't scare you Adam!

You can see my female in these pictures (the one I kept)
http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r77/cadogancna/

Adam, Sorry I am getitng tired it's late.But did you want to know about importing a dog or getting a dog that is already imported, you talk about customs and I thought you meant you wanted to import.Sorry If I got that wrong.

Thanks. I was also wondering a few other things? Why is there so much emphasis on getting an import?? Are there such bad lines in the US, I know from reading that there is WAY TOO MUCH emphasis on the appearance (SHOW) and less on function here? I don't want the perfect dog (well who wouldn't want the perfect dog, but I'm realistic about that). I just want a good working dog that compliments our relatioinship well. I hold no illusion about being national champion dog/owner combo I just want us to have "fun" together basically?!? Seen a few GSD's around where I live but all show lines and to be honest, they are just not what I want. Whether it be from owner irresponsibility or not, they seem to be "dumb", lazy and just non-productive in terms of working and Schutzhund capability?? I'm trying to avoid mistakes made by others that are new to the working GSD like I am here??

I used to hear imports ,imports imports.The reason why I imported mine is that I could not find a female for a REASONAL price in the state with a title.For some reason I would find tons overseas but not in the states.It depends what you are looking for but I find that good breeders don't keep older dogs for sale very long and females it's even harder because they keep to breed especially if they are titled.I wanted an older female because I had a very young male that I am training in Schuz. and I did not want to add another pup to the pack.
I really don't know why people focus on "imports" someone else might explain better than I.But if you compare prices, it was cheaper for me to buy from overseas than buy from a breeder here that imported the dog.Even with the loss I took on the first female.Someone I know from this board also imported a female recently and got a good female had he bought her here in the US I believe he might have paid double.Are you looking to get a male?
I think practically most GSD in the US are imports.I think for the people that emphasis the fact that their dogs are imports think they can ask more money.It really is all about the money..

From what I've gathered, people import due to price (as Angelique said, titled dogs in the US are expensive!) as well as bloodlines. There are studs overseas that we just don't have here, plus the gene pool is far larger. There are very nice American dogs, don't get us wrong, but there are even more nice dogs in Germany, or in the Czech Republic.

I would look around at breeders in the USA with nice stock and try to find out where they imported their dogs from. Talk to people. Find people with nice dogs and find out where they got their dogs/puppies. Keep track of horror stories; make your own "blacklist" of kennels and people to avoid at all costs (like the one Angelique describes -- ugh!)

American show lines don't even compare to American working lines. American show lines couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. You are right on the money -- 90% of US GSD breeders breed show dogs for looks, looks, looks. American show line GSDs are a joke. There is nothing in them that would make them a good schutzhund dog. Talk to either American breeders who breed working dogs (like Ed Frawley!) or contact breeders overseas. Avoid American show dogs at all costs. (German show dogs, by the way, have decent working capabilities and there are several folks on this board that own them. Show dogs in Germany don't have the same problems as show dogs in the United States -- whole different ballgame.)

In a nutshell, if you want to start from scratch and get a puppy, there are plenty of good places you can go, just ask around. If you want to buy a dog that's already trained and titled, it's possible to get one here but is more expensive and you're probably better off importing.

Thanks for the information. I have a few places in the US that have received good reviews from people here on the forum,and seem to be good? I'm not buying right now and I can avoid that buy now mentality that seems to be a big reason why some people are taken advantage of and ripped off??

Thanks Again??

Adam