| The Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging | | | | compared against what would be required of a |
| (KNPV) is a dog sport originating in Holland that uses | | | | search conducted by actual police forces. One of the |
| a number of exercises in an attempt to mimic | | | | biggest problems is that the dog is trained to mouth |
| situations encountered by police k9 units. One such | | | | the object, pick it up and bring it back to the handler. |
| exercise is centered around a search for small articles. | | | | In a real police search, investigators wear latex |
| The KNPV small articles search takes place in a | | | | gloves to avoid disturbing the evidence any more |
| square section of grassy field. Three small objects, | | | | than absolutely necessary. To have the dog mouth a |
| such as a key, a ring, a bullet casing, or a coin, are | | | | piece of evidence might completely ruin it. The |
| placed on the field. The dog then has 10 minutes to | | | | correct action for the dog to take would be to |
| search the field and retrieve the objects. The handler | | | | indicate passively by sitting next to the found article. |
| is permitted to give basic commands instructing the | | | | Secondly, because KNPV is a sport, the exercises are |
| dog to search, stay or release the retrieved object. | | | | performed with specific regulations concerning the |
| A retrieval time of under 3 minutes is required to | | | | search area. During a search, an officer can almost |
| obtain a perfect score, while the dog is also graded | | | | never rely on evidence being simply dropped in a |
| on general obedience, the manner in which it | | | | perfectly square patch of grassy field. |
| searches the field, and how it handles the objects | | | | The most important thing to remember is that KNPV, |
| during the retrieval stage. | | | | like all other dog sports, is just a sport. Police dogs, |
| The intent of this exercise is to train the dog to act | | | | protection dogs and guard dogs alike need to be |
| in a manner that mimics a police search for evidence. | | | | trained to handle real situations from the very |
| Unfortunately, the way this exercise is performed by | | | | beginning. Training for sport just isn't good enough |
| the KNPV presents a number of problems when | | | | for work in the real world. |