News

‘He’s no idea!’ Runaway rescue dog steals the show again at Crufts

Mar 09, 2019

Crufts favourite Olly returned to the competition. Source: Facebook/Crufts.

He first left the crowd in hysterics in 2017 when his performance went disastrously wrong as he ditched the routine in his excitement and began zig-zagging round the obstacles.

And little Jack Russell rescue dog Olly made a return to the 2019 competition this week – but he doesn’t appear to have calmed his excitement too much since.

The adorable pooch was filmed being held back by his owner before zooming onto the course and beginning with a seemingly great start, pulling off the three jumps perfectly.

However, it was downhill from there as the speeding dog decided to dodge the zig-zag obstacle course completely and instead do a wide lap of the course, much to the crowds delight.

From there he took control completely and started jumping the odd random jump before flying into his owner’s arms at the end – clearly more than pleased with his efforts.

The commentator had viewers at home in stitches too, as he began the coverage by saying: “Oh dear, it’s Olly!”

From there he seemed incredulous as he watched the dog take charge, eventually joking: “He has no idea! He’s marvellous!”

Taking to social media shortly after, viewers heaped praise on the adorable pet with one person commenting: “Sod the rules….its play time,” while another added: “He did pretty darn good!”

Meanwhile one wrote: “I love him ! Because he’s fun to watch and he’s having the time of his life ! He’s a speedy little thing aswell !”

His owner, Karen Parker, told the Express: “I didn’t think he could top last year’s performance, when he ran into the crowd rather than around the course. He’s like that all the time, he’s insane! One of the presenters showing the clip on TV news said, ‘We should all have a bit of Olly in us’ and I thought ‘I don’t think you need that’!”

Olly has a very sad background, having reportedly been dumped by the gates of a Blue Cross pet rehoming centre inside a cat carrier at just six weeks old. However, his transformation is incredible.

It came after his 2017 effort (see video immediately above) went viral and made him stand out as a Crufts favourite alongside last year’s entrant Kratu who, despite months of preparation, decided to make up his own course on the day.

Much to the audience’s delight, Kratu seemed far more interested in having fun and stopping by the volunteers for pats than actually completing the tough course.

He left commentator Peter Purves in hysterics, with the esteemed Crufts presenter laughing good-naturedly all the way through the show.

While Kratu might need to work on his agility and obedience training, he has far more important work to focus on in his everyday life. Kratu is an emotional support dog for his owner Tessa Eagle Swan, who was diagnosed with autism the year before.

Tessa told the Ealing Times at the time that Kratu, who’s a Romanian Mioritic-Carpathian sheepdog mix, has brought joy to her life and made social interactions much easier since coming to live with her.