The City of Elk River puts on a lot of fun events for the community, but also for it’s canine friends. Dog Days is a monthly get-together at Lake Orono Dog Park in Elk River, MN. This event was first organized in 2019 by Elk River Farmers Market and Special Event Coordinator, Karen Wingard. Wingard explained, “Dog Days was created when we had a puppy at home, so we got a new puppy, and we had the dog park here at Lake Orono, and I thought it would be fun to do some dog events, so it was kind of selfish in the beginning is how it started, but we wanted a way to incorporate, to have our puppy meet other puppies.” 

Beginning in May and through October, Dog Days takes place on the second Tuesday of the month. Chuck & Dons and Spikes alternate every month for sponsoring the event. When one of them sponsors, they usually bring a give-away basket and free samples for the attendees. Stephanie Archerd, the Elk River Spikes & Houles Store Manager, said “We usually will throw together a little gift basket to bring to the park for people to enter in for their dogs to win, sometimes we bring free samples for the pups, and we kind of just spend a couple hours hanging out there with everybody and their dogs.”

However the event is not just meant to bring people in once a month, but also to bring attention to the dog park all month long. Michele Theis, the Elk River Chuck and Dons Store Manager, said “It’s just to generate fun around the dog park and get people to learn about the dog park, know they’re there, see the upgrades.” Dog Days is a great opportunity to meet people and their dogs, so keep a look out for the next event. This has been Savannah Potter, Noise News.