Bow Wow Wow! This dog can travel in the jungle.

“Arthur the King” is based on the true story of how a racing team befriended a wounded dog during their race through the Dominican Republic. It’s a corny, but mostly affectionate and something thrilling ride that shows us the connection between man and Man’s Best Friend. It probably sounds corny the way I’m describing it, but I’m a dog person with two canine nieces, so what can I tell you?

Mark Wahlberg stars as Swedish elite athlete Mikael Lindnord, who’s titled in this movie as Michael Light, an American athlete. And his canine co-star is Ukai, who is one of those movie dogs to commit himself to the part. I just found out Wahlberg is allergic to dogs, but has four of them and takes medication for him to deal with them. How he does it is truly amazing, and according to an Entertainment Weekly interview, he states: “You got to accept the fact that the dog’s going to show you up a little bit.”

As the movie begins, Michael loses his magic, and dislikes selling real estate for his father (Paul Guilfoyle). His wife Helena (Juliet Rylance, stepdaughter of Mark Rylance) and daughter Ruby (Cece Valentina) both believe that he can get back out there. So, he needs to enlist a team of climbs to scale the mountains in the Dominican Republic. He’s determined to race whether his sponsors will fund him or not.

His team consists of the navigator Chick (Ali Suliman), who has knee problems, the young climber Olivia Baker (Nathalie Emmanuel), who is the daughter of famous climber Hugo Baker (Oscar Best), and Leo (Simu Liu), who believes in IG fame more than teamwork. That’s why we get to have an exciting scene when Michael saves Olivia in a zip lining accident, why he throws Leo’s iPhone in the rainy jungle to lampoon him a bit.

A last minute addition to their team is a stray dog, who becomes their guide and inspiration. He’s an aging dog who has traveled far and wide by walking and hitching truck rides, at least through our perspective. To the racers, they have no clue how he made it this far. And they name him Arthur the King, after you know who. The dog is able to bark in order to save them from falling off a cliff, has a taste in meatballs, and is even willing to swim to their kayak to keep going.

The pathos comes in when the dog is terminally ill, and Michael is willing to find a way to take him back to America with him.

“Arthur the King” was directed by Simon Cellan Jones, who just guided Wahlberg in “The Family Plan,” which I didn’t care for because of its lame jokes and tired formulas (and I still think Michelle Monaghan was a snipe when she found out about her husband’s true identity). Read my review of that. This movie, however, has its formulas which are all cut and paste, but the overall heart and adventure is miles ahead of that dirty diaper.

The dog is real. Not CGI like in “Call of the Wild.” That means we get to like both Wahlberg and Ukai for what Michael Brandt’s (“3:10 to Yuma,” “Wanted”) can provide for them. It’s heartbreaking and uplifting, which all depends on the scenes. And it wants us to care about their characters, especially if one of them has a craving for meatballs.

Maybe I enjoyed “Arthur the King” because of how I became a dog person. Or maybe it’s because Wahlberg can specialize in various genres. Or maybe I was able to look past at the cynicism. Or maybe I just got back from a good hike in Boulder, Colorado a few weeks ago. All valid points.