Electric Shock in Dogs: Cut the Power Before You Touch

The first rule of an electric shock is not about the dog. Touch it while the circuit is live and there will be two casualties on the floor.

A puppy chews through a lamp flex. You come into the room and find it on its side by the skirting board.

Everything in you says get to the dog. Do not, not yet, because if that dog is still in contact with a live circuit then touching it puts the current through you as well, and a second casualty helps nobody.

Deal with the power first

1. Cut the power. Switch the appliance off at the wall, or trip the main fuse box if you cannot reach the switch safely.
2. If you cannot kill the power, separate the dog from the wire with something non-conducting: a wooden broom handle, a plastic chair. Never your hands, and never anything metal.
3. Be extremely careful if there is water about. A wet floor or wet grass will carry the current to you. If the area is wet, go to the fuse box first and do not step onto the wet ground until the power is off.

Then the dog

1. Check breathing and heartbeat once the power is definitely off. Hand on the chest behind the elbow, and watch for the chest rising. If it is not breathing, start CPR and get someone ringing the vet.
2. Look in the mouth. The commonest injury by far is a burn on the tongue, lips, gums or the roof of the mouth from biting a cable. What is visible is often small, while the damage underneath is not.
3. Wrap the dog in a blanket and go, ringing ahead so they can have oxygen and an ECG ready.

Go even if your dog seems fine

This is the part that gets skipped, and it is the reason electric shock has its own page rather than sitting under burns.

Electricity can disturb the heart's rhythm and cause fluid to build up in the lungs, and neither of those necessarily shows up straight away. Signs can appear anywhere up to 24 to 72 hours later, long after everyone has decided the dog got away with it.

So a dog that chewed a cable, yelped, and is now trotting about as normal still needs checking. And for the next three days, take any new cough, breathlessness or unusual tiredness seriously and go straight back.

What to look for

• Found near a chewed cable, exposed wire or a pulled-over appliance
• Burns on the tongue, lips, gums or the roof of the mouth
• Singed fur or whiskers, or the smell of burnt hair
• Collapse, unconsciousness or a limp body
• Not breathing, or breathing slowly and shallowly
• Coughing, gagging or wheezing, which suggests fluid on the lungs
• Pale, blue or grey gums
• Stiffness, tremors or twitching

In the days afterwards: coughing, laboured breathing, weakness, collapse or going off food.

It is nearly always a young dog

Almost every case is a puppy or an adolescent, because chewing is how they investigate the world and a cable is exactly the right shape and springiness to be interesting.

The prevention is genuinely straightforward. Route cables behind furniture and out of reach, use cable tidies or protectors on anything that has to run across a floor, unplug and put away chargers, kettles and lamps when they are not in use, and do not leave a young dog loose and unsupervised in a room full of wires, particularly behind a television or a desk.

Phone chargers deserve a special mention. They are thin, they lie on floors and beds at exactly puppy height, and they are the single most commonly chewed item in the house.

Sources

This article was written using guidance from PDSA, the UK's largest veterinary charity, whose Pet Health Hub is written by its own vets and nurses; AVMA, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the professional body representing US veterinarians; and RSPCA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the UK's oldest animal welfare charity. This guidance is for general information and does not replace a consultation with your own veterinarian. In an emergency, always contact a vet. Read [how we write our health guidance](https://rochsociety.com/how-we-write-our-health-guidance/). Last reviewed July 2026.