You're allowed to decoy every level and trial in every level. If you look at the pictures, you will see that the winner of Intermediate, Brad, is one of the decoys. The Decoys just go off the field a few dogs ahead of their turn to get their dog ready. The judges also trial if they want to. This year, only one of them did, but other years, both judges have.
The only exception is, if you want to trial in advanced, you have to go first so that you can get out on the field and work dogs, since it's sequestered you can't work any dogs before you trial your own. If you are trialing two dogs in advanced, you have to trial them back to back.
amazincc wrote:TheRedQueen wrote:or flies around you on the leash like he's never heeled before in his life...
I guess that qualifies us then...
Look through the advanced photos, you'll see a few advanced dogs running around like they've never heeled in their life either. They aren't on leash, but some of them weren't exactly listening once the water was involved.
And look at other years as well, every year has different challenges and different issues that come up - trust me, none of you will be embarrassed, made fun of, heckled or otherwise poorly treated if your dog gets upset about one of the challenges. In other years, the trial has stopped for me and my lovely dogs numerous times.
The writeups don't really detail people's "trouble spots" but if you page through the pictures you will see them.