COLLEGE STATION, Texas—Do you know a dog with a good nature and a propensity to beat Bevo?

TAMU

Reveille VII is retiring.

Texas A&M is looking for its next mascot, Reveille VIII.  The university released its recommendations for the famed four-legged football fan this week.

They’re looking for a healthy, female, medium to large dog with an outgoing personality who is at ease in crowds.

Puppies need not apply.  The committee that met on designating the dog decided the training would be too much for a baby.  The dog needs to be at least 18 months old.

“This mascot is used like no other mascot in the nation, and by no small margin,” Bresciani said. “To introduce a dog to that level of activity, in a sense, 100 percent full time level isn’t treating the dog as well as it should be treated.”

But what kind of dog will do?

The committee recommended either a collie-like dog or something resembling a golden retriever.  They said the ideal dog would already have some service training.

“There are, obviously, very structured training organizations that produce those sorts of dogs, and we’ll be working through those organizations literally on a national level,” said Dean Bresciani, A&M’s vice president for student affairs. “There’s a network of people who do that sort of thing, so it will be, we hope, a very efficient process.”

The university hopes to make its selection in time to introduce the new Reveille this fall.

Reveille VII is retiring on May 10 after seven years as the "First Lady" of Aggie Land. A panel will recommend a host family to care for her.

The lucky dog will live in the Corps dorms where a cadet with the title "Mascot Corporal" will take care of her. If Reveille chooses to sleep on the cadet's bed, the cadet must sleep on the floor. If she is in class and barks while the professor is teaching, the class is to be immediately dismissed, according to A&M's Web site.

The first Reveille was a mongrel that, according to campus lore, was picked up by some cadets along side Highway 6, which runs through College Station . The precise date of her arrival on campus is believed to have been in 1931, and it is well documented that she died on Jan. 18, 1944, and received a formal military funeral on the 50-yardline of Kyle Field. Her name was reportedly prompted by her habit of howling when the corps bugler played reveille to wake the cadets each morning.

For more on the history of Reveile, click here.