“Collar pop” conditioning low down

What is it? Why did we do it?

Earlier this year I started something called collar pop (or collar tap) conditioning with my Australian cattle dog, Scout. I think even such a simple exercise has drastically improved our communication and confidence.

Here’s our complete lowdown: what collar pop conditioning is, why I thought it was worth doing, and how we went about the process.

* I learned this from Jay Jack’s foundational lesson plan, which is available for free on his website. I highly recommend checking out his work and scheduling a virtual session if you have any questions! I am not (and will never pretend to be) a professional trainer myself.

What does “conditioning the collar pop” even mean?

While collar pop conditioning is one of the most helpful things I’ve done with Scout, it’s also one of the most confusing. Whenever I post photos of our weekly training checklists, I can count on several questions about what a “collar pop” session looks like.

I completely understand! It’s not exactly the most self-explanatory t…