Cori the dog is a campus celebrity. Whether she is retrieving kicking tees or bats, or making an appearance at an on-campus event, the UC Davis population loves to see her.

Cori is a black Labrador retriever owned by Lisa Tell, distinguished professor with the Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. She volunteered to have Cori retrieve football tees when Pint, the previous retrieving dog, retired. Later on, the athletics marketing department asked Tell if Cori could retrieve bats at baseball games. Currently, UC Davis is the only Division I school that has a full-time dog to retrieve both the tee and baseball bats for its college football and baseball teams. 

Danielle Shank, chief marketing officer for Intercollegiate Athletics, said: “You need a special type of dog to do both of these jobs,” and Cori has been retrieving for football and baseball ever since.

For years, UC Davis has had a dog to retrieve the kicking tee at football games, and for the past four seasons, that dog has been Cori. It took her nine months to train to retrieve the tee. Tell wanted to make sure Cori could consistently retrieve the tee no matter where it was placed. 

“The noise of the stadium and the crowd is a distraction, and depending on the tee’s position, she has to do a blind retrieve where she can’t see the tee,” Tell said.

Once the tee is retrieved, Cori would bring the tee back to the kicker. 

Angelo Genetti is a former kicker for the team and a sociology major. “She is a super happy and sweet dog, and she knows what she is doing on the field,” he said. 

During football practices, the team will go up to pet Cori and hang out with her. After games, the family and friends of the team will take photos with her. 

Expanding to baseball

She is also in her third season with the UC Davis baseball team, retrieving bats during games. 

“She picked up carrying bats quite easily. The team uses metal bats, and metal can feel weird on dogs’ teeth, and it is quite heavy, but the bat is in direct sight and close to the dugout” Tell said. 

Mason Lerma, a junior, is a pitcher on the team and works with Cori in the dugout during home games. 

“I love it — Lisa’s super great and Cori’s gotten a lot better over the years,” Lerma said. 

She only retrieves for three innings due to the weight of the bat, and the potential heat that could cause fatigue, so Lerma chooses the innings where most people are there. Once Cori retrieves the bat, she can hand the bat to him, and the crowd typically rewards her with huge rounds of applause.

The team also enjoys having Cori around, and there are times that she travels with the baseball team and is able to retrieve at away games at the other school’s discretion. 

“The baseball team all loves Cori — it is like she is a part of the team,” Lerma said. "She is a good companion dog to have in the dugout, and the players find her presence in the dugout calming as well.” 

Swim, therapy, more

Cori has also started working alongside the swim team. “We knew what she did with the football team and wanted to incorporate it in swim, but safely,” said Matt Mercado, coach of the UC Davis swim team. Cori performs the long jump at swim meets, where a swimmer will throw a toy into the pool, and Cori will run and jump into the water in order to retrieve it. She has made appearances with the swim team three times, and as long as they can fit in her schedule, Mercado said they would love to keep this going.

Other than having jobs at sporting events, Cori is a registered therapy dog and is part of the Alliance for Therapy Dogs, and she participates in on-campus events with Aggie Mental Health. She also works with the Sports Medicine Department as a therapy dog. 

“Athletes with varying stages of injury love meeting Cori, as it gives them the ability to relax,” said Melissa Hughes, assistant athletic director of sports medicine. “She brings a positive energy to the room that they would not have otherwise.”

Tell said Cori enjoys working with the community. 

“Cori absolutely loves people, and she really looks forward to doing her jobs,” Tell said. “People go to UC Davis sporting events for a full fan experience that includes Cori as part of that experience, and Cori loves to be a part of these teams.” After games, Tell gives her a little bit of popcorn from the concessions stand. “She loves that, then she goes home to hang out with her sister dogs and brother cats. She also gets to eat her dinner, which is a very exciting thing for a Labrador retriever.”