WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An American dog owner was shot by his pet after it jumped on his bed and set off a loaded gun, police said Wednesday.

The man, from Memphis, Tennessee, was asleep beside his female partner when he was shot early Monday morning, escaping with a graze to his left thigh that was treated in hospital.

The dog — a year-old pit bull named Oreo — “got his paw stuck in the trigger guard and ended up hitting the trigger,” a police incident report said.

It did not specify the type of weapon fired, and recorded the incident as “accidental injury”.

While gun violence is prolific in the United States, cases of animals shooting humans are rare.

Two years ago, a German shepherd dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man in Kansas after it stepped on a hunting rifle.

In 2018, a 51-year-old man from Iowa was shot in the leg by his pit bull-Labrador mix.

Local news station Fox 13 Memphis cited the Tennessee victim’s girlfriend, who was not named, as saying she was sleeping when the gun went off.

“The dog is a playful dog, and he likes to jump around and stuff like that, and it just went off,” she reportedly said.

Her lesson from the incident: “Keep the safety on or use a trigger lock.”