Could someone explain why the 5 and 10 min intrval is used. Seems to me it would help a dog that can snatch the front all day but not get in front and hold it. It seems like everyone is against the snatch and grab dog but wants to score to help it.

I AGREE!I SAY IF A HOUND IS RUNNING GAME SCORE IT!NEVER UNDERSTOOD THAT MYSELF!IF A HOUND IS RUNNING THE GAME FOR 8 MINS.& GETS ONE CROSIING HOW DOES A HOUND THAT GETS IN THE RACE EVERY 10 GET SAME SCORE!DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT ONE!

It works both ways one time it will help you but what if next time someone else's dog gets after a sow with pups that tries not to get away from her pups and passes the same judge running alone 15 times in 30 minutes you would hope for 10 minute rule then just my opinion but I will take it either way. Also think about it like this a lot of people hate a snatch and grab kind of dog but when he's hot he can some times make several laps around the pen and what the rule does is keep the playing field a lil more level so a dog can't just blow the hunt out in 30 lucky minutes.

Today many pens are less than 350 acres and will put over 10 judges in a pen which gives us the opportunity to really look at the hounds and eliminate that chance of a hound getting "Lost".
However there are many situations where judges may only be 150 to 250 yds apart "as the crow flies".
It is very easy for a hound to jump in a race and run past 2-3 judges in less than 2 minutes and peel out.Ac***ulating 105 points in 2 minutes and trot up and down the road for the next 30 minutes. In my opinion and as much as I judge(which is a lot) I see that as a problem and see many hounds place that can't stay in a race.
Unfortunately many people field trialing today don't understand how we use to break times on each hound and how he truly only got 1 score per 10 minutes(his best score)This really seamed to eliminate that hound that built up quick scores and rewarded the hound that RAN the entire time.The computer programs today cant do it the way we used to do it so they just set up 10 min blocks. It is still possible for a hound to score twice in a 1-2 min period of time if he catches the end of a time block and the beginning of a new time block just right.
Trust me if you spend enough time judging you will see the need for the separation and will probably turn into a big proponent for us to figure out how to get these computer programs to actually break times. It picks a much more consistent and full time running hound.
Go judge 10 field trials in the next 6 months and lets all revisit this at the end of the year. Happy hunting and keep enjoying what we all love to do. Most importantly do it respectfully and appreciate each of your fellow foxhunters.

That is not totally correct the 7d's program from David Wride figures scores just as nationals rules in 10 minute intervals not 10 minute blocks as the masters program

Thanks guys !!!

There are at least 2 reasons to use some kind of interval. First, it prevents over-scoring of a hound which sometimes happens by accident (as in the case where 2 judges are too close together and don't realize they are scoring essentially the same crossing) and which sometimes happens due to cir***stances as in the case of a piece of game running tight circles near a judge or judges. Secondly, intervals prevent a hound from being able to rack up a ton of points during one particular period of the day and coast to a victory during the rest of the day. To do well in a hunt using intervals a hound will have to score some throughout the day and be more consistent from the 1st hour to the last hour.

Intervals do have unintended consequences which some of you guys have pointed out. An interval homogenizes the scores from the field. It will force the scores of all the hounds to be closer together and not let one hound get out in front of the rest in score even if he is a great hound. Like in NASCAR if Jimmy Johnson gets a big lead and is about to lap the rest of the field then you see the Caution flag come out to bring them all back together. Intervals do that. Since I'm on NASCAR analogies it is also like putting a restrictor plate on the fastest cars to make them closer to the slower cars in performance.
Some folks think a shorter interval helps the snatch and grabbers but shorter intervals actually help the track running hound that stays in the race. The snatch and grabber will be in and out and looking only for first place or nothing. In any given 10 minute interval he will probably get that one 1st place crossing he is looking for. Meanwhile the steady hound is running 1st, 2nd, 3rd, sometimes 4th or 5th or back in the pack but he is always there and keeps running the track in spite of the swinging going on ahead of him. Well the result of all that good running is he gets to keep only the single 1st place crossing just like the road runner got to keep. If the intervals had been 3 minutes long instead of 10 then perhaps the steady hound would be able to keep a 1st place and two 2nd place crossings, or maybe the first place crossing and 2 pack scores. He gets to keep more total points than the hound that cut in and only led the race past one judge during all that time.

My conclusion is that intervals are helpful but the shorter the better. 5 minutes is good but 3 minutes would be better.
The National way of applying the intervals is better at preventing over-scoring of a hound but the Masters way is a lot easier to do.
7D's program will do it the National way but can only handle so many scores in a short time period. Hopefully someday there will be a program that works flawlessly but we are not there yet.

James Ray is correct.

Lets take a dog averaging 12 miles/hour.... that's 1 mile traveled for every 5 minute period.

For the 3 minute break it's just over 1000 yards...

A lot of changing can happen in 1000 yards and a whole lot can happen in a mile.

We used to run money hunts on 3's ..... 3 judge groups , scored the top 3 , and 3 minutes....worked out fine.

Hey ol' friend, would you please sell me one of those 12 mph averaging hounds. HaHaHaHa