People Moving First Then Buddy Joining Later?

I'm new here.  DH and I are potentially moving to the London area this fall.  We will be temporarily housed for two months while I start work.  We hope to find a long term rental after doing this and then bringing our buddy, Henry, over to join us.  He is a 13 pound toy poodle & cockapoo rescue doggie.  We are thinking of having him shipped over to us and picking him up at Heathrow instead of returning to the States to collect him.  We know that he would need to fly cargo.

Has anyone had similar experience?  We have some funds set aside to do this and are prepared to pay for this service.  If there are any potential pitfalls we'd like to know.  We're both American and are making (what we hope) is a permanent move to the UK.  We have friends and family who will be caring for Henry while we are getting relocated.  We think that shipping him to us later might be best for everybody.

Any thoughts, questions, comments or emojis welcome!  Thank you in advance!

I did exactly this.  Animals came after I moved out of corporate housing.  Worked out great.

KFDancer - did you use a pet shipping service or arrange it yourself?  We aren't opposed to spending the extra on getting him over safely.  If it's not necessary though saving a few £s would help fund everything else we haven't budgeted for.   

I used Air Animal out of Tampa.  They've made it easier to bring animals since I did it, so I would be tempted to try to do it yourself if the company isn't paying.  I know you can fax everything to Animal Reception first and they'll check the paperwork before your pets flight, which eases any fears.  That being said, Air Animal did everything for me so it was very low stress.

I did this as well. My dog/cat stayed with my parents and then my mom dropped them off at the airport and I collected them at Heathrow. I filled out all the paperwork myself, but my mom had to do the final vet visit. The only snag was the airport staff deciding that one of my crates (I think the dog's) was too small for him so my mom had to run to the pet store to buy another one on the day.

They arrived safe and sound and no one had any issues with a different person dropping them off and picking them up (I had my mom give them my contact info in the UK in case there were any issues).