“It is essential that hounds should have their blood up and learn to be savage with their fox before he is killed. A sleeping cub killed by two or three enquiring hounds is of no use whatsoever to the rest of the pack who will only wander up after everything is over to see what has happened, and nothing would have been learnt.”
10th Duke of Beaufort, Fox Hunting (David & Charles 1980)
What is Cub Hunting?
Foxhounds do not hunt foxes by natural instinct they have to be trained and encouraged to do so. Starting in late August / early September, ahead of the main hunt season, many hunts engage in “autumn” or “cub” hunting.
The object is to kill foxes, whose numbers will have increased during the breeding season, and to train the young hounds into hunting foxes.
Cub hunting is rarely advertised in the meet card and there are usually very few people present. The hunt staff attire for cubbing is referred to as ‘Ratcatcher’ which is a tweed jacket although some staff wear their regular hunting jacket.
Soon after daybreak (which is 6am in late August) or just before dusk the Huntsman and a few riders and foot-followers will surround a small wood (known as ‘covert’) where a family of foxes is known to reside. The pack, which will include a number of new, young and inexperienced dogs, will be sent into the covert. With all earths and underground escape route blocked by terriermen the previous evening, the riders and foot-followers will attempt to deter fleeing foxes by making as much noise as possible. Should any fox break through the ring, he will be allowed to escape in the hope that he will provide a long chase in a future hunting season. Those that don’t escape will be killed.
Whilst surrounding the ‘covert’ is the traditional view of cub hunting, it also can involve hunting along hedgerows or overgrowth that may contain foxes as you would see during the main foxhunting season. It is typically a slower pace as this is a period when horses, hounds and riders are being conditioned. By October, when hunts are meeting at 9am or later, hunting often resembles traditional foxing rather than cub hunting.
In his book, Hounds in Old Days (Spur Publications 1979), Sir Walter Gilbey states that a method by which young hounds were introduced to killing foxes, without the possibility of being bitten, was to be given a live fox with its lower jaw sawn off.