A Few Updates

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Tyson and I have been so busy. This week started my "teach week." On Tuesdays for the next two weeks, I have to teach a full blown lesson. It is a skill that the children HAVE NOT LEARNED YET. Yes. I WAS nervous, but yesterday, I taught my first lesson on verbs to my first grade class, and it went really well. I got a lot of positive feedback from my mentor and observers who came and watched me, and the children seemed to have caught on to what verbs are. Thank goodness I didn't ruin them for life!

Yesterday, the dog breeder emailed Tyson a couple of pictures of our puppy......or I should say...........Tyson's K9 bite dog. He's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!! Tyson can't wait to get him NEXT WEEK!!! I can't believe it has come up so soon. I'm excited, but a little nervous because we have to go through all of the "puppy" things like the potty training and the crying and whining at night. Say goodbye to some more sleep. :( It's okay though! I can't wait to hold him and play with him, and I can't wait to see how him and Precious interact. Here are a few pictures of our puppy!

Also, here's Precious with the "new do," or as I'd like to call it, "the ugly cut." Poor thing has to meet her brother looking scary, but she needed to be shaved to save us from the matting.

OH YEAH.....NOT SO FLUFFY ANYMORE!

I'M STARTING TO THINK WE PICKED UP THE WRONG DOG AT THE GROOMERS.

Anyways! That's pretty much it. I started teaching, the new puppy is coming, and Precious got an ugly haircut. We're still busy as ever. This week, Tyson is taking classes to get his Intermidiate Police Officers Certificate, so he's unable to go to the K9 trainings. He won't be able to go for a couple more weeks because he's driving up to Mississippi to get the new pup all of next week.

This upcoming month, Tyson and I should be taking engagement photos, and hopefully, I can get started on the Save the Date cards to send out. That's it for now..........We love you all!

There's No Place Like Home...

At the beginning of Tyson and my Spring Break, we took some time to go to Austin/Georgetown and visit our family. There is definitely no place like home. You feel more relaxed, and it is so nice to get away and have mom and dad there for ya. I had so much fun going birthday shopping and celebrating an early birthday for me with my mom. THANK YOU mommy for the awesome BCBG top that we got for an unbelievable price! I'm still telling the story! Ha! Ha! Anyways! I truly feel I don't get to see my mom enough, and every time I do, I feel like I'm home again. As my mom would like to say it, "It's my oasis."
Also, when Tyson and I go to visit his mom and dad.......they, too, make it feel so relaxed and "homey." They also did an early celebration for my birthday. YAY for the spa gift card so I can go get a well deserved massage, and YAY for the yummy strawberry cheesecake that I oh so love! THANK YOU Nancy and Hugh!
It was so nice to see Tyson so excited on Sunday morning while on our way up to Austin. I know he was excited to see his mom and dad. He is always so thrilled!
Today, Tyson and I went up to Heather's Glen to go make a payment for our wedding. I got to see (somewhat) how much of the flowers are in bloom around this time since this will be about the time we get married next year. I was disappointed to see that the vines still looked dry and dead, and there weren't many flowers blooming. Hopefully, the case is that it is still the beginning of March, and we're getting married at the end of March, so things will progress towards the end of the month. Or, I'm hoping it's just because it was cold for an extended period of time, and the flowers haven't gotten a chance. Maybe we've lacked in rain???? I don't know. Oh well. Maybe next year it will all be lush.
Otherwise, Tyson and I are still soaking up the last few days of our Spring Break together, and I'm certainly catching up on sleep. I can't tell you how good it feels to not have to wake up to an alarm buzzing at 5:30 in the morning, and being able to be with Tyson for a full day. Tyson certainly enjoys all of the relaxation time. YAY FOR A VACATION! Anyways! Keep in touch everyone! Again, Tyson and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from all of you!

Fun Stuff!

Hello everyone! Everything is going great for Tyson and me. Spring break is coming up, and Tyson was able to get off from work, which is VERY rare! We're so excited to be able to spend a whole week together! During this week, I get to go to one of Tyson's bite/narcotic dog training sessions with him. I'M SO EXCITED!

On another note......I'm so excited to tell everyone that I made the National Honor's Society and the Dean's List at Sam Houston State University! Yay for a few more things to stick on the resume!

As I told everyone in the last blog entry, Tyson just went through decoy school where he trained with some bite dogs, and how to work with them. We just received a CD of a bunch of pictures from his eventful week. It is really neat to see how these dogs work. I can't wait to get ours in one more month! Below are some pictures of Tyson training with some dogs. Also, below all of the taining pictures is a video of Tyson in action! Don't be scared. He knows what he is doing. :)

The "jist" of what this bite training is all about:

Every dog has an owner/trainer, and those dogs are taught to only attack on a command. They are trained on commands in either dutch, german, french, etc. Basically, mainly not in english. The dogs are trained to get excited to want to attack a "bad guy." When they get a bite, that is their reward, and they get so excited. You will see their tails wagging because it is like a game to them. Again, they are only taught to do this ON THE OWNERS COMMAND. They are just like a normal, fun, loving dog otherwise. Trust me.....it took me a while to understand this. They aren't trained to be mean, just to know if they see someone trying to intimidate them, or run from them, and the owner/trainer says the command.........they go. Other than that, they have to stay. During training, the "decoy" (the one who wears the bite suit and gets attacked for training purposes) must try to get the dog ready to attack. They start to run, the dog is released, and then the dog jumps up in the air and grabs what is put in front of him/her. Usually, the decoy is to try to pretend to fight the dog by hitting it with a rubber stick, or picking the dog up and pretending to throw it to the ground. I was AMAZED to see how many dogs just would not let go no matter how many times they were tossed around. Don't worry, the dogs aren't being hurt. The decoy does it GENTLY to try to emmulate real life. This is to see if the dog knows not to let go no matter the circumstances, unless it is given a command. The decoy is also supposed to pretend like they are hurt or screaming. This is the dog's rewards, and builds the dogs confidence by letting him/her know that they are winning. Usually, if the decoy pretends to go to the ground, this is also the reward. Well, there is the "jist" to make sense of some of these pictures.

There's no need to fear!

UNDERDOG is here!