Pedigree and Breeding

In 1993, 695 dogs achieved the Police Dog One (PH-1) certificate, 82 dogs attained the PH-II certificate, 117 dogs made Objectbewakingshoud (Object protection, 21 dogs received a Reddingshound title, and four dogs their Speurhond (tracking) title. A dog may repeat an examination but must first turn in his current certificate. If he fails, he again becomes an uncertified dog. Repeat certification attempts are unusual, but sometimes a handler feels that his dog is better than the first score and is willing to take the risk.

The Police Dog One examination has a water exercise where the dog must swim across a canal on command and return on command. There is also a large object retrieval. Obedience is much less precise but more demanding than other sports. The dog must heel on and off the leash and beside a bicycle. There is a food refusal, an exercise where a dog must remain quiet during the gunfire, a one-meter (39-inch) hedge jump, a 2.25-meter ditch jump, and a 1.75-meter wooden wall.

The protection exercises include a guard of the object, an object search in the woods, a person search in the woods, and transport of prisoners. There is a long attack in which the dog is struck with a long stick before the bite, a call back from a long attack, an attack against the gun, and a long attack to stop a person fleeing on a bicycle.

Every year in May, July, and October, the KNPV puts on certification tests. The Head Board of the KNPV and the board of each province organize these certifications. With enough dogs, each province can have its certification in each of these months. Normally, you do your certification in your province. The Head Board of the KNPV chooses the decoys and the judges, who never come to work in the province they live in for a test.

Every year in June, the 10 highest-scoring dogs from the last three certification tests go to the National Trial for "Object Guarding" or Objectbewakingshoud. This trial is normally held in the city of Oostebeek in the eastern part of the country. Every year on the first Saturday of September, the 10 highest-scoring PH-1 dogs are invited to the National PH-1 trial. Before the National Trial, the 10 dogs must have done their certification test in May or July. This means a dog can only once compete for the most coveted police dog in one national championship.

For this reason, many of the best dogs are held back a year or even two to have a shot at every KNPV trainer's dream, the national championship. From this, we can see that the KNPV is much less of a sport than Schutzhund, where a dog can compete many times. This also means that a titled dog has value only as a police dog, commercial guard dog, or personal protection dog and as a breeding resource; there is no "used dog market" for trained and titled animals to be taken back into KNPV competition. (Some dogs are converted for Schutzhund, but given the age of the dogs and the differences in training and trial procedures, they very seldom become championship-level competitors in a new sport.)

Every year on the first Friday in September, the 12 best PH-Il dogs compete in the PH-II Championship. The highest-scoring dog from each of the 11 provinces, plus the National Champion from the previous year, is invited. These trials are always in the city of Den Bosch. KNPV is the most popular, and the competition the most intense, in the southern provinces of the Netherlands, such as Limburg and Brabant.