“Cataloging” is one of those words we hear a lot in nosework. It sounds pretty sophisticated, doesn’t it? It makes it sound like the dog is taking inventory of the search area, gathering information, and making a plan.

Is it possible that that is what is happening? Maybe… but it’s a stretch. Assuming that the dog is properly acclimated to the area and working in the right arousal state, what we are calling “cataloging” is better referred to as something else…

It’s Shopping.

And that distinction matters.

Because when we call it cataloging, it can start to sound like it’s just the way the dog searches. As though this is the dog’s natural style and we simply need to accept it. But in many cases, that behavior is not a search style at all. It’s a training issue.

The good news? It’s usually very fixable.

When I say “shopping,” I’m talking about the dog who checks odor, maybe shows a little interest, and then leaves to go look somewhere else. They may bounce from one area to another. They may seem to recognize that odor is present, but they don’t really commit. They keep hunting because the hunt itself has become more valuable than the find, or the next hide may potentially be easier.

That last piece is important.

In nosework, we want the dog to love the hunt. Of course we do. But we also need the dog to love the find. If the dog gets a huge amount of fun from moving through the environment and not nearly as much fun and value for putting their nose on source and staying there, then we’ve accidentally created a dog who browses (picture window shopping!).

A lot of this comes from doing too many multiple-hide searches too soon.

Multiple hides are fun. They’re exciting. They feel like advanced training. But if the dog doesn’t already have strong hide commitment, multiple hides can teach the wrong lesson. Instead of learning, “Find the hide and stick with it,” the dog learns, “There might be another one over there, and another one after that, or something easier if I keep moving.”

That is where shopping can really take hold.

And then we give it a nicer name.

We say the dog is “cataloging”.

But if the dog is leaving odor because they haven’t learned that commitment is valuable, that isn’t something I want to ignore and gloss over. That is something I want to fix.  Sometimes, dogs leave odor because hunting is more valuable.  Sometimes they leave because the first hide is too challenging.  The second reason is an even bigger issue because it can chip away at a dog’s resilience level over time.

Hide commitment is not automatic just because the dog understands odor and gets a cookie. Hide commitment has to be built (and maintained). The dog needs enough strong reinforcement history at source that finding the hide becomes the best part of the game. Not competing reinforcers…. or just the searching. Sometimes dogs can even value the movement or the novelty of the environment over the find.  We need our dogs to value the finding and to develop the grit to stick with a challenge.

Let’s look at an example

In this video example, we see a dog shopping at the first hide.  In this case, he wasn’t quite sure of the answer or how to nail it down.  So he left and found an easier hide.  Unfortunately, he was actually reinforced for leaving the first hide because he found an easier hide.  This is important.  This is how we inadvertantly teach and reinforce our dogs for shopping and subsequently decrease their resilience.  It’s not done on purpose, but it happens. The very good news is that this is an older video…. this dog and handler have improved so much that they recently earned their first Summit title with a First Overall!  (She is also one of my Teaching Assistants… I AM SO PROUD OF THIS TEAM!!)

The Solution

When we accidentally build shopping into the behavior chain, single-hide searches become much more important in the team’s training plan.

I know single-hide searches don’t always feel glamorous. They don’t feel as exciting as a big search with multiple hides. But they are some of the most valuable searches you can do, especially if your dog is starting to shop.

A good single-hide search tells the dog, “There is one answer. Your job is to find the hide, solve it, and commit to it.” Then we as handlers make that moment really, REALLY valuable.

That is how we rebuild clarity.

That combination—single hides and a strong reinforcement system—is what fixes shopping.

Not more complexity.  Not more handler help.  Not walking the dog into the hide.

And definitely not shrugging and saying, “Well, that’s just how he catalogs.”

The reinforcement system matters here. A lot.

We want the dog to feel that committing to odor pays better than continuing to browse the environment.

When you look at it that way, shopping is not “just how a dog searches”. It is not the dog being difficult. It is not a sign that the dog is this breed or that breed.

It is just information.

It tells us that the dog needs more value for source, more value for the reinforcement system, and probably fewer multiple-hide searches for a while.

And that is okay.

Foundations are not something we do once and then leave behind forever. We come back to them anytime the dog tells us there is a hole. Shopping is one of those holes. Fortunately, it is usually not a very hard one to fix if we are willing to do the work.

So next time you catch yourself saying your dog is cataloging, pause for a moment and ask:

Is my dog really gathering information?… Or is my dog actual shopping?

If the answer is shopping, don’t panic. Just go back to what works.

Choose an area that is low in distraction. Set one hide. Let your dog hunt. Mark clearly. Reward well. Build the value of finding the hide.

Ultimately, we want a dog who solves the problem quickly.

And that starts with making source worth committing to.

(Author note: I am NOT referring to solving multiple hides within a close proximity convergence puzzle.  Sometimes those hides need to be parsed out to solve and the dog might be working multiple scent cones at the same time.  I am talking about distinct and separate hides or setups.  When a dog “shops” close proximity setups, they tend to find one of the hides in the setup, acknowledges additional odor in the problem, and then leaves for something easier.  That can be a more difficult problem to diagnose but it’s the same issue.)