Happy-go-lucky dog has wonderful time ignoring dog show routine

Nearly 21,000 canines competed in the Crufts 2019 dog show — but there was only one Baron Kratu von Bearbum.

The Romanian rescue mutt took no trophies or ribbons at England’s annual celebration of man’s best friend.

Who needs hardware when you own the spotlight? Kratu furballed his way through the agility course, gleefully refusing to obey his trainer’s every command.

Far from a four-legged fiasco, this adorable 5-year-old was the one to watch. Officially billed as a Carpathian-Mioritic mix, Kratu’s rambunctious moves and stealth hiding techniques cracked up the Crufts crowd.

Founded by traveling salesman Charles Cruft in 1891, the 128-year-old Kennel Club event now attracts more than 150,000 tourists, breeders, traders and, of course, dogs every year.

Kratu was one of 3,611 dogs leading what organizers dubbed the “foreign invasion,” which saw 413 entrants from Italy, 389 from France, 327 from the Netherlands and 325 from Germany.

The UK-based rescue group Wood Green saved Kratu from an abusive home in 2014, The Dodo reports. He was adopted as a puppy by his owner/trainer, Tessa Eagle Swan.

“As a teenager he was incredibly hard to train — he was so stubborn and determined to do what he wanted,” Swan tells the Daily Mail.

“He is such a big character who will try to do what he wants rather than what I am asking,” she says. “He is challenging … [but I] believe in all rescue dogs having an education with kind reward-based training and, if needed, behavioral work in order to be able to become happy, balanced dogs.”

Well, there’s little question that Kratu made some dog watchers happy. In the end, Crufts supplied 12 solid hours of televised pooch performance art on Channel 4 in the UK.

That’s nothing to bark at.