Tryouts are held every May before final exams take place. They are open to current UGA students and incoming freshmen who have been accepted to UGA. If you are a current UGA student, you must have at least a cumulative 2.5 UGA GPA in order to tryout. Tryouts will consist of several evaluations while wearing the Hairy Dawg suit. We will look at your mobility, character development, appearance in suit, situational awareness, musicality/rhythm, and improvisation.

Many benefits come with deciding to join our mascot program. Just like our cheerleaders & Dance Dawgs, mascots also receive many perks. Some of those benefits include stipends each semester, free use of our Rankin Smith Academic Center, priority scheduling, FREE Georgia Nike apparel, the opportunity to letter as a student-athlete at the University of Georgia, the opportunity to travel to away football games (including postseason bowl games) and SEC & NCAA Basketball Tournaments. We also have access to many other student-athlete resources such as nutritionists, sports psychologists, and academic counselors. Filming commercials for ESPN and other big corporate names are pretty fun too!

Hairy Dawg is a year long commitment. On top of academics, football, basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics, Hairy Dawg is also responsible for fulfilling the hundreds of appearance requests our spirit office receives. Appearance locations can range from the campus of UGA to as far as California. The position of Hairy Dawg comes with much sacrifice. It is a high demanding role with a huge time commitment. While the Hairy Dawg position is very rewarding, it take much self-discipline to get the job done to the Georgia standard.