The other way to do it is to collect pup at 8 weeks and then find someone willing to board and socialise untill passport is complete. If you have friends on the continent this works very well.

Theres no shortage of litters planned from other lines for around spring, which this one was. I just liked this dam very much & the combination seemed to me to be a very good combination. In fact there is a good litter there now but having to change my tyres for 5 winter tyres + obtaining snow chains to fit would not only be expensive,for 'brand name' tyres I doubt if I could even get a snow chain the right size.
The last thing I'd recommend is driving through Germany, hit a snow covered road and be brandishing a set of Brit number plates, without winter tyres on the car & no snow chains in the boot

My import is asleep on my lap as I type :) He was from the Netherlands and we collected him in Belgium and brought him back to the UK through France.
He travelled on day 22 of his rabies with no problems and he had his jab on the first possible day.
We were lucky with timings and dates and collected him at a show and the breeder had his passport signed off before handover with her vet and we travelled home after the show - this meant we had time if anything had gone wrong with the worming etc, but also he was still with his breeder if his chip had failed or similar and we needed to go to emergency back up plans. He was put into my name for the passport etc when I paid the deposit for him and the balance was paid just before his vet check and then KC change of ownership signed at handover.
It was incredibly easy and I would import again. I was lucky my breeder had exported before and so I just had to follow her lead! I would say you definitely need a breeder you could trust - I won't lie that until he'd had his rabies on the "right day" and then he had the sign off from vet I was a bit nervous :)

He was a collection in August so snow chains etc wasn't a worry. Could breeder meet you in a different country? I was lucky that Belgium was a kind of half way point for us both but had a show we were both going to at the right time!

My import is asleep on my lap as I type :) He was from the Netherlands and we collected him in Belgium and brought him back to the UK through France.

Germany & Austria seem to be more stringent than anywhere else although the snow chain law for numerous countries really needs to be taken care of, not least because if you do not have them & get stopped then if you drive off again still without them thy can pull you again, I have no idea if some countries impound the car as they do here >but< everyones car insurance >only< covers them if the car is 'legally' on the road, these things need to understood for us Brits who do not have & are not familiar with those laws.

It was incredibly easy and I would import again.

Yes it is very easy, it should be no problem at all. It's more a case of making oneself familiar with other, strange, laws that are relevant 'in some way', I've had first hand experience of the French police & they do not play games or ask questions in English. If UK police acted in such a way they would be sacked & hit the national headlines & all kinds of hullabaloo, not so everywhere.