Twins Let the Dogs out at First-Ever Bark in the Park Day at Target Field

At the series opener against the Chicago White Sox, a parade of furry Twins fans donning Twins bandanas, collars, baseball caps, and even human jerseys pranced through Target Field’s gates to catch a Twins game in person (as it were) at Target Field’s first-ever Bark in the Park Day. Before the game, the left-field concourse area was abuzz with smiling dogs of every size and type, as owners bribed them with treats to entice them to pose long enough for the pup-arazzi to get photos.

Bark in the Park Days have become a tradition across MLB and in its minor leagues, with at least 20 other MLB teams hosting dog days in 2024, according to CityDog Magazine. The Twins’ Triple-A affiliate, the St. Paul Saints, is hosting three such dates this season. But until now, Twins fans’ furry best friends have not been able to attend a game at Target Field. (There were dog days previously held at the Metrodome.) Twins fans have long (ahem) hounded Twins staff for the team to host this type of event.

Twins fans Megan and Travis Knops took their eight-year-old "super mutt" (his primary breeds are lab, German shepherd and husky) Griffey to the inaugural promotion. Megan Knops said that once she heard the Twins were adding a Dog Day, it was a “no-brainer” for them to go.

“I was like, ‘finally!’ I have been waiting for this for years and tweeting every season how the Twins need to have one. So I was very excited,” she said. 

While Monday was Griffey’s first Twins game, Megan said that the dog has been to multiple Saints games and loves baseball. He’s named after Ken Griffey Jr. after all. 

"He is a very sociable pup and loves going everywhere with us. He always had a great time - except for when he saw Mudonna. He was scared of the big pink pig!" Megan said.

 Image courtesy of Megan Knops

Heather Rajeski, the Twins' Director of Marketing Promotions and Special Events, said that before her starting with the Twins in 2022, staff had brought up the idea of doing a dog day, but that it had not yet come to fruition--likely due, in part, to the large amount of operational logistics involved with hosting hundreds of happy dogs at a baseball game. 

Once joining the Twins, Rajeski, a dog lover who previously worked for the Oakland Athletics for 17 years doing marketing, promotions, and events where she helped plan Dog Days, also brought up the idea. Slowly, members of the Twins staff got on board. The traction finally came to a head this offseason. When the team was planning the upcoming season’s promotional calendar, Twins President Dave St. Peter and owner Joe Pohlad suggested the team host a dog day, and thus, the planning began.

When the Twins announced the promotional schedule in February, fan excitement was paw-sitively overwhelming. Once the event’s special tickets went on sale, they sold out within 36 hours.

Twins fans Caleb and Heidi Weisgarber bought tickets and drove to Target Field from Bismarck, North Dakota, about six and a half hours away, for the game. With them, they brought their dogs Lilo and Stitch--the latter of whom wore a stadium giveaway adult-size Brian Dozier jersey. The Weisgarbers get to a lot of games already--they have a 20-game flex plan--so when they saw Bark in the Park Day announced, they thought it would be the perfect excuse to make the drive to Minneapolis to catch a game. This time, all four of them got to come.

“Instead of finding a dogsitter, we got to have them with us,” Caleb said. 

Twins fans Jenny Slaughter and Shannon Granholm texted each other immediately after the event was announced. Why did they want to go to Bark in the Park?

“Because we’re obsessed with our dogs!” Slaughter said with a laugh.  

Slaughter brought Maggie, a corgi who has participated in corgi races at US Bank Stadium, and Granholm brought Tundra and Twinkie.

“Anytime we can bring our dogs to places, we do it,” Granholm said. She was wearing an outfit that included a shirt and shoes completely covered in pictures of corgis. 

Perhaps most excited about the Twins’ addition of a dog day was Pioneer Press Twins reporter Betsy Helfand. Helfand is known among Twins fans and staff for being perhaps the biggest fan of dogs you will ever meet—she grew up with a dog, Hallie, and is now known to tweet pictures of cute pups she sees at baseball games, and anywhere else she goes. 

As a Twins reporter, she has gotten the chance to experience other teams’ Bark in the Park events when the Twins have been in town, including the Royals and, just last week, the Orioles. When she knows it’s Bark in the Park Day, she gets her work done “very quickly” so that she can go down to the concourse and mingle with baseball’s furriest fans before the game. 

“I always go over and say hi to as many dogs as I can,” Helfand said. 

Helfand had been asking Twins staff for years when they would get a Bark at the Park event, so when the game was announced, she was so excited that she sent a text with 22 dog emojis to Twins Director of Business Communications Matt Hodson. She even tried to get her sister (who lives in Portland, Oregon) to go on a road trip to Minnesota to bring her dog to the game. In the lead-up to Monday, Twins fans tweeted at Helfand, inviting her to meet them and their dogs at the game.  

“As many dogs as I can meet is really the goal for Monday,” Helfand said.

The Twins left no details untouched in planning a successful day—from on-site veterinarians to contracting with a dog waste company to set up a dedicated potty area outside the stadium to a pop-up Twins dog merchandise stand, to even having extra leashes on hand in case someone's breaks. The Twins also had a charitable component: a portion of each ticket package goes to Can Do Canines, which offers free service dogs for people living with disabilities. 

Throughout the game, the Twins made much of their in-game entertainment dog-related—the "Simba Cam" on the big screen showed Twins fans holding up their dogs, the "lookalike" cam showed famous canines like Air Bud next to their Twins fan lookalikes, and when a Twins player was up to bat, the big screen showed a photo of him with his dog. Hilariously, whenever the Twins wanted the crowd to make noise, they played a doorbell sound so that the dogs would participate. And of course, they played "Who Let the Dogs Out" by the Baha Men.

Because it’s their first-ever Dog Day at Target Field, the Twins sought to take “baby steps” so they would not break off more dog treats than they could chew. This year, the Twins limited ticket sales to 250 dogs, all of whom were located in sections 126 and 127 in the left-field corner of Target Field. Rajeski acknowledged that not everyone may feel comfortable around dogs, so the Twins had dogs enter through a specific gate and were not allowed anywhere else in the stadium besides the concourse area outside the sections leading to the potty exit.  Rajeski said that, assuming everything at the game goes well, the team hopes to discuss the possibility of expanding that number for future events.

“I'm an animal lover, so I’m really excited to have all the dogs here, and hopefully we can continue to grow this event and that it will be something even more fans will be able to participate in the future,” Rajeski said.

After the paw-ty was over and the Byron Buxton jersey-wearing dogs and their owners filed into the night to get one last sniff in at the Target Field Station plaza, from the smiles on both those with two and four legs, it was evident everyone had a doggone good time, and that there is no better way to watch a baseball game than with your best friend. And now finally, we know who let the dogs out. 

Did you attend Bark in the Park Day? What did you think? Let us know in a comment below.