If your dog has stopped breathing, artificial respiration can maintain the essential supply of oxygen to the blood. Learning the procedure could save your dog's life. If you've ever learnt how to perform the technique on humans, you'll find there isn't a great deal of difference for your dog.

In most cases, artificial respiration and CPR will serve only as a means of keeping a dog alive until a medical professional treats him or her. If your dog seems to be having heart or breathing difficulties, contact a vet immediately.

Performing artificial resuscitation

• First, identify the problem by following the simple ABC rule - A is checking the Airway, B is for Breathing and C is for Circulation. If the dog is not visually breathing, place your ear on their chest and listen for a heartbeat or take their pulse.
• Open your dog's mouth, grasp the tongue and pull it as far forward as possible, clearing it from the back of its throat.
• Wipe away any mucus or blood. Remove any obstruction. Watch your fingers as you could easily get bitten.
• Make sure that you remove the collar and any other restricting item.
• If the animal has fluid in its throat or is a victim of drowning, hold it upside down by its rear legs for 15-30 seconds - but check the dog for other injuries such as broken leg beforehand. If you suspect there may be a fracture, hold the dog up by the waist instead. You may need to ask for help if you have a large dog.
• Pull your dog's front legs forward so they aren't resting on the chest, making it difficult for him or her to breathe.
• If the dog does not resume breathing once the airway has been cleared, begin artificial respiration. Close the dog's mouth and keep one hand under the jaw for support. Place your mouth over the nose and exhale, forcing air through the nose to the lungs. Be very careful not to blow to exhale too forcefully, as our lungs are bigger and you can run the risk of over-inflating those of the victim.
• Watch the dog's chest to see if the lungs inflate. Remove your mouth, repeating the cycle about six times a minute and being very careful not to inhale saliva or air from the animal.
• You may need to carry on for 30-60 minutes, until the dog is breathing by itself. To check the heartbeat, move your hand to the lower part of the dog's stomach and back to around the third or fourth rib.

Performing canine CPR
If you cannot detect a heartbeat, you may need to perform emergency CPR in combination with artificial resuscitation. An animal that is not breathing may still have a pulse, but if the heart has stopped there won't be any breathing.

Firstly, lay your dog on its right side on a firm surface.

For smaller breeds, place your fingertips on either side of the thorax (the third to the sixth ribs down) and apply gentle, firm compressions, at one second intervals.

For larger breeds use your palm rather than fingertips.

Artificial respiration should be maintained at the same time, so after every fifth compression, inflate the chest with air and repeat the cycle. This ensures that oxygen will be present in the lungs as soon as circulation restarts.

If the heart doesn't start beating again after three minutes, sadly there will be nothing further you can do.