I'm moving my dog with me in early December. It's very expensive, but worth it. With so much in life about to change, it's nice to have the same furry face looking up at you every morning and that same unconditional love.
Hook up with a pet exporter as soon as possible (9/11 regs make an exporter a requirement). Your dog needs a rabies shot and titer several months out, and the other requirements are complicated, but doable. There's a list of pet exporters at
www.ipata.com.
To get an idea of cost: I'm paying about US$1750 for flight/USDA/exporter; US$1500 for quarrantine, US$1500 for vet costs/testing/documents. This is San Francisco to Christchurch, with a large dog (well, I never thought of him as large, more like short and stout, but he is 68 lbs).