The Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehond Vereniging (KNPV) is a
dog sport originating in Holland that uses a number of exercises
in an attempt to mimic situations encountered by police k9
units. One such exercise is centered around a search for small
articles. The KNPV small articles search takes place in a square
section of grassy field. Three small objects, such as a key, a
ring, a bullet casing, or a coin, are placed on the field. The
dog then has 10 minutes to search the field and retrieve the
objects. The handler is permitted to give basic commands
instructing the dog to search, stay or release the retrieved
object. A retrieval time of under 3 minutes is required to
obtain a perfect score, while the dog is also graded on general
obedience, the manner in which it searches the field, and how it
handles the objects during the retrieval stage. The intent of
this exercise is to train the dog to act in a manner that mimics
a police search for evidence. Unfortunately, the way this
exercise is performed by the KN