How to Do CPR on a Dog: Step-by-Step Instructions and Getting to the Emergency Vet

I'm not a veterinarian; every step here comes from the guidance named in each section. The short version, in order:

1. Check that you are safe. A frightened or injured dog can bite, so keep your face away from its mouth.
2. Check responsiveness. Call your dog's name and touch it. Then watch the chest for normal breathing.
3. If your dog does not respond and is not breathing normally, start compressions. Treat it as cardiopulmonary arrest, which means the heart and breathing have stopped working.
4. Get the call made. If someone is with you, they call the nearest emergency veterinary hospital while you work. If you are alone, start CPR first and get the hospital on the line as soon as you can.
5. Position your dog for its chest shape, press at 100 to 120 per minute, and let the chest recoil fully each time.
6. After 30 compressions, give two rescue breaths if it is safe to breathe into your dog.
7. Keep repeating the cycle, with a brief check every two minutes, as American Red Cross pet CPR material describes, and continue during the drive.

One honest limit belongs right up front. The AVMA's 2025 pet first-aid brochure states that first aid is not a substitute for veterinary care. CPR buys time; the goal is getting your dog to a hospital team.

A dog that collapses is not always in cardiac arrest. Seizures, bloat and swallowed toxins can all drop a dog without stopping its heart. The 2024 RECOVER guideline keeps the decision simple: a dog that is unresponsive and not breathing normally is treated as being in cardiopulmonary arrest, and basic life support starts.

It also recommends starting CPR in an unresponsive dog that is not breathing without first trying to feel for a pulse at the inner thigh or over the heart. Time spent searching is time without compressions. The American Red Cross phrases it as checking for chest movement and a heartbeat, and beginning compressions if you cannot find them.

Some situations do not call for CPR. A dog that is breathing and has a heartbeat is not a CPR case, even if it looks terrible. If your dog is breathing abnormally, unconscious but breathing, has blue lips or tongue, or keeps collapsing, treat it as an emergency and call a veterinary hospital right away, but do not press on its chest. If a seizure, bloat or something your dog ate is the likely cause, DogServ's pages on seizures in dogs, bloat in dogs and what to do when your dog ate something bad cover those situations.

Where your hands go depends on the shape of your dog's chest. The 2024 RECOVER guideline puts most dogs on their side, which vets call lateral recumbency, and then adjusts hand position:

• Medium and large keel-chested dogs (narrow, deep chests): hands over the heart. The AVMA brochure gives Greyhounds and Dobermans as examples and places the hands just behind the armpit.
• Medium and large round-chested dogs: compress over the widest part of the chest.
• Wide-chested dogs: RECOVER keeps them on their side and compresses over the widest part of the chest until a vet has placed a breathing tube. Only after that, in a stable dog, may veterinary rescuers turn the dog onto its back.
• Small dogs: RECOVER lists three options. You can wrap your hands around the chest and press with both thumbs over the heart, encircle the chest with one hand and squeeze, or press over the heart with the heel of one hand.

The owner guidance differs on one point. The AVMA brochure describes placing barrel-chested dogs such as English Bulldogs on their backs, with your hands over the middle of the breastbone. The RECOVER specialist guideline keeps wide-chested dogs on their side until a vet takes over. Both are published guidance. Whichever position you use, match the depth to that position, as the next section explains.

Both RECOVER 2024 and the AVMA give 100 to 120 compressions per minute. That is close to two pushes every second.

Depth depends on position:

• Dog on its side: press one-third to one-half of the width of the chest.
• Dog on its back: press one-quarter of the chest's front-to-back depth.

That second number is new. The 2012 RECOVER guideline used one-third to one-half depth across the board, and the 2024 update lowered the depth for dogs on their backs to one-quarter.

Recoil matters as much as the push. Let the chest come all the way back up between compressions, and aim to spend about as much time off the chest as on it; RECOVER describes this as a 50:50 duty cycle. The 2012 guideline also stressed uninterrupted two-minute cycles, so keep your pauses short.

If you are alone, the American Red Cross and the AVMA describe the same rhythm: 30 compressions, then two rescue breaths, then back to compressions.

The Red Cross describes the breath this way. Close your dog's mouth, gently extend the neck so the airway lines up, cover the nose with your mouth, and exhale until you see the chest rise. Then give a second breath and go straight back to compressions.

With two people, the job splits. According to the AVMA, one person keeps compressing while the other gives 10 breaths per minute. The owner guidance does not say how often to swap roles, so follow what the hospital tells you when you call.

Breathing into a dog carries some risk to you, and the 2024 RECOVER guideline accounts for it. A rescuer without a breathing tube can use a tight-fitting mask, can give mouth-to-nose breaths when the risk to the rescuer is low, or can do compression-only CPR when breathing into the dog is unsafe. Compressions alone are an accepted option in that case.

A muzzle can protect you from a bite, and the AVMA suggests one if your dog threatens to bite. It must never block breathing, and it should not be on your dog when it would stop you from giving rescue breaths.

A choking dog that is still awake needs different help, and CPR is the wrong tool for it. The AVMA lists the signs: trouble breathing, pawing at the mouth, coughing or choking sounds, and sometimes blue lips or tongue. Seek veterinary care immediately.

The 2026 RECOVER first-aid guideline changed the order of steps for a conscious dog:

1. Give up to five firm back blows first.
2. Do not reach into the mouth of a conscious dog. The AVMA adds that you should look in the mouth only if it is safe, and never push an object deeper.
3. If back blows do not work, other techniques such as abdominal or chest thrusts may be considered, with caution. RECOVER notes they carry possible injury risks and limited direct evidence.

If your dog loses consciousness, switch to CPR, and start with chest compressions before you check the airway. After the first 30 compressions, look in the mouth and remove an object you can see, taking no more than 10 seconds. Then give two breaths and repeat the cycle. Do not sweep a finger blindly through the mouth. Even if the object comes out and your dog seems fine, RECOVER and the AVMA both call for a prompt veterinary check.

Call the emergency veterinary hospital as early as you can. The AVMA tells owners to call so the hospital is ready when you arrive, and the staff can advise you on transport while you are on the phone. If you do not know which hospital is closest, DogServ's emergency vet directory lists emergency clinics by area.

If two people are there, one drives and talks to the hospital while the other keeps doing CPR. Nobody should try to do CPR while driving. A large dog is hard to move alone, and the AVMA advises asking for help with lifting.

Keep CPR going in the car. The American Red Cross and the AVMA both describe continuing until your dog is breathing regularly and has a heartbeat, or until veterinary staff take over.

You stop when one of two things happens: your dog starts breathing regularly and has a heartbeat, or the veterinary team takes over. A dog that comes back still needs to be seen right away.

I won't promise you an outcome, because the numbers don't support one. A 2025 study of the RECOVER CPR registry followed 354 dogs that had cardiac arrest inside 16 veterinary hospitals:

• 132 dogs (37.3%) had their circulation return.
• 63 dogs (17.8%) kept that circulation for more than 20 minutes.
• 14 dogs (4.0%) survived to go home.

Those were in-hospital arrests with trained teams, so they do not directly predict what happens when an owner does CPR at home. RECOVER puts survival to discharge at under 6% of dogs. A 2025 outcomes study still reports that good functional survival is possible after some out-of-hospital arrests and long CPR efforts. CPR can restore circulation for a while and give your vet a chance to treat the cause. The RECOVER first-aid evidence review is clear that research on owner CPR for dogs outside a hospital is still limited.

The risks are real, and knowing them helps you avoid the preventable ones:

• Compressing a dog that doesn't need it. Do not press on the chest of a conscious or normally breathing dog. The AVMA notes it can injure the dog and worsen existing injuries.
• Rib or chest injury. This can happen during compressions. The emergency here is a heart that has stopped, so do not hold back out of fear, but keep to the right depth and let the chest recoil fully.
• Bites. An injured, scared, confused or reviving dog may bite. The AVMA advises keeping your face away from the mouth, not hugging the dog, getting help to move it, and using a muzzle if it threatens to bite, as long as the muzzle does not block breathing.

If you are reading this ahead of time, hands-on practice will make the rate, depth and hand position feel familiar before you need them.

The American Red Cross runs an online Cat and Dog First Aid course with digital certification, along with a pet first-aid app. Check the current price on the course page itself. RECOVER trains and certifies rescuers mainly through its own program, and reports more than 113,000 online CPR training completions and more than 38,000 in-person certified rescuers. For the price of that training, ask RECOVER directly.

Local emergency hospitals, veterinary colleges and pet-sitting organizations may also run practical classes. If you or someone in your home reads Spanish more easily, RECOVER reports that its 2024 guidelines have been translated into 15 languages and language variations.

Yes. The steps come from owner guidance written by the AVMA and the American Red Cross for people without veterinary training. Focus on the rate of 100 to 120 per minute and full recoil, and have someone call the emergency hospital, whose staff can talk you through transport.

Stop compressions, keep watching the breathing, and keep your face clear of the mouth, because a reviving dog may be confused and bite. The AVMA says a dog that needed first aid still needs veterinary care, so continue to the emergency hospital.

Yes, with a different hand technique. The 2024 RECOVER guideline groups small dogs with cats and allows two-thumb compressions with your hands wrapped around the chest, a one-handed squeeze around the chest, or pressure over the heart with the heel of one hand. The rate stays at 100 to 120 per minute.

Do compressions only. The 2024 RECOVER guideline accepts compression-only CPR when breathing into the dog is unsafe, and a tight-fitting mask is another option if one is at hand.

Until your dog breathes regularly and has a heartbeat, or until veterinary staff take over, according to the American Red Cross. Red Cross material also builds in a brief check every two minutes, which is your moment to look for breathing before you continue.

If your dog is in trouble right now, stay with the steps at the top of this page and get to the nearest emergency veterinary hospital; DogServ's emergency vet directory can help you find one. If you are preparing ahead, save that hospital's number and address in your phone today, learn which chest shape your dog has, and consider a hands-on pet first-aid class so the rhythm is familiar before you ever need it.

• American Veterinary Medical Association: AVMA's 2025 pet first-aid brochure
• doi.org: 2012 RECOVER guideline
• onlinelibrary.wiley.com: 2024 RECOVER CPR guideline
• onlinelibrary.wiley.com: 2025 outcomes study
• onlinelibrary.wiley.com: 2026 RECOVER first-aid guideline
• PubMed: 2025 study of the RECOVER CPR registry
• PubMed Central: RECOVER first-aid evidence review
• recoverinitiative.org: RECOVER
• recoverinitiative.org: translated into 15 languages and language variations
• redcross.org: American Red Cross pet CPR material
• redcross.org: American Red Cross