For Care of Latigo, Bridle and Saddle Leathers

When you buy a leather collar from Ella's Lead, you can expect the collar to have been conditioned before you receive it.
However, no matter how high quality a leather is, it should be conditioned from time to time to bring it "back to life" and to help preserve it.  Even those that have decades of experience working with leather know that all leather should be conditioned and maintained. 
For our leather collars that are latigo, bridle, or saddle leathers and NOT lined in suede, you can condition them, inside and out, on an "as needed" basis.
We highly recommend Fiebing's Aussie Leather Conditioner as this is what we use on most collars before we send them out, and it's what we use on our own dogs' leather collars.  It's relatively inexpensive and has seemed to do the trick for our collars.
Just take a generous amount onto your finger tips (wear gloves if you prefer or need), start rubbing on the inner strap, up to the edges, and a thin coating on the outside of the collar.  Take a soft rag and run the collar through the rag after rubbing the conditioner in for a bit.
The Fiebing's conditioner should not harm any decorations on your collar.  It's a gentle (but effective!) conditioner.
This is what we get and use to prepare each leather latigo or bridle strip before making it into a collar. And entire jar would probably last a customer years.

Since all of our leathers are from different tanneries, they will be different in feel and appearance because, not only are they different colors, but they were treated and handled differently at the tannery that they came from.
We find our black, burgundy, and cheddar leathers need less conditioning than most of our other leathers.  They are extremely nice latigo leathers that are already nice and waxy and super soft.  They tend to "heal" nicely.
But, having said that, my two are pretty rough on their collars, and I use a light amount of the Fiebing's about once a month on Ophie and Luke's black and burgundy leather collars.  For these I just take a nice, thin amount of conditioner, and I start on the edges (I never wax the inside of the collar), rubbing the conditioner lightly and thoroughly into the edges.  If the top of the collar has some surface scratches, I use a very thin amount and just thoroughly rub it into the top.  By thin amount I mean, I use just a thin film where my finger tips are barely wet by the conditioner.  I rub it into until my finger tips no longer have any conditioner on them and then I put more on my finger tips and repeat the process until I feel the leather is conditioned enough.

***Also, it needs to be noted that ALLLLL leathers, to some degree, will "bleed" when wet.  NO LEATHER is colorfast.  We use a product to help "seal" our latigos and bridles, to help make the leathers colorfast.  But NO leather is colorfast.  If you put your collar on your dog when he is wet (after a bath or swimming), you might see a faint ring on your dog's neck.  OR, if you put a wet leather collar on your dog, you might see a faint color.  Wash your dog, let the collar dry (or let your dog dry) and then put the dry collar back on the dry dog.  The ring should not be permanent.
See, there aren't any burgundy cows.  ALL leather whether it's black, brown, burgundy, tan, Chesnut, etc, are dyed via the tanning process at the tannery.  The color of ALL leather before dye is added is a Caucasian skin color.
If you plan to get your dog wet in his leather collar, or plan to somehow get the collar wet, and you do not want a faint temporary colored ring around your dog's neck, we will be stocking a water-resistant sealant for you to purchase, if you so choose.
But just because a leather color runs slightly onto your dog when the leather is wet or your dog is wet, DOES NOT INDICATE CHEAP LEATHER.
Here at Ella's Lead, we pride ourselves in stocking the FINEST latigo and bridle leathers on the market.  We know that our leathers are of the highest quality.  We put them on our own dogs.  And we would NOT put cheap leather on our own dogs, so we surely would not put cheap leather on yours.

*************DO NOT CONDITION SUEDE LININGS!********************


***Specialty Leather Collar Conditioning***
The fiebing's can be used VERY LIGHTLY on the outside of specialty leather collars.  DO NOT get any on the suede, and if the collar is embroidered, avoid getting any on the embroidered areas.


***IF your collar has a suede lining that is NOT stitched in***
We recommend NOT taking these collars into water every single day.  Walking a dog in the rain will not ruin the collar, but we cannot promise the condition of the collar if exposed to a body of water every single day.

***ALSO, we do not recommend conditioning the python print leathers.  They are basically a chap split suede and although the wax shouldn't ruin them, it will dull them.  You can condition the edges of the underlying latigo leather, though.
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Do remember, however, leather is leather.  It's not nylon, it's not fabric, it's NOT man-made. 
Allowing your dog to wear a leather collar, no matter HOW high quality the leather is, through water every single day of its life, WILL eventually break down the quality of the leather and allow it to stretch.

Think of it this way:  Would you toss a Coach purse into a lake, ocean, swamp, chlorinated swimming pool, or river every day and expect that purse to look new months or years later?

Or, an even more appropriate comparison:  Would you toss expensive leather horse tack (and horse people KNOW how expensive leather horse tack can be)  into a lake, ocean, swamp, chlorinated swimming pool, or river every day and expect that leather horse tack to look new months or years later?
Not likely.  Especially if NOT conditioned and maintained. :)

*****Ella's Lead is not responsible for how your collar turns out once your dog has worn it and you have conditioned it on your own.  Our advice is based on our experience treating our own collars on OUR dogs and how others with leather experience have relayed advice to us on care and conditioning collars.*****