Bear, who suffered an electric shock, remains in veterinary care.

Vancouver police dog Bear and his handler had just finished tracking a suspect when the 21/2-year-old German shepherd suddenly yelped and fell unconscious in cardiac arrest.

But Bear came back from the brink of death after his handler performed mouth-to-snout resuscitation.

Members of the Vancouver police dog squad were returning to their vehicle Sunday, walking along Heatley Street when the dog stepped on an exposed electrical plate in the sidewalk.

Vancouver police spokeswoman Constable Sarah Bloor said Bear's handler, who has not been named and is still distressed by the incident, became aware that his partner was in distress when the dog began whining and yelping, then collapsed to the ground with what appeared at first to be a seizure.

But when his handler knelt down to touch him he, too, got an electrical shock and moved the dog to safety.

Bear fell into unconsciousness and then suffered cardiac arrest.

Bear's handler began performing mouth-to-snout resuscitation to keep the dog breathing while another officer assisted with chest compressions.

"Bear is a big boy but the 240 volts went right through him and caused him to go unconscious," Bloor said.

"The dog handlers are trained to deal with their animals," she said. "It's his partner. He'll do anything he can for the dog."

Bear began breathing but was still unconscious when taken to an emergency veterinary hospital.

Bear was recovering in a veterinary hospital on Monday. His handler and other squad members remain cautious about his recovery -- dogs that receive severe electrical shock are at risk of fatal complications from a possible buildup of fluid in the lungs.

"He's doing well today but we're not saying that he's out of the woods yet."

The plate was part of the connection for a street lamp located mid-block on the 400 block of Heatley.

Bloor said it appears insulation on wires located underneath the plate eroded, allowing current to transfer to the plate.

Bloor said she understood that the current would not be noticed by pedestrians wearing shoes because they would be insulated.

"A human wouldn't know. Yet, you get a paw, such as in this case with a police dog and that's when the metal would feel electrically 'hot.'"

She said the city was called and workers repaired the plate.

It's not the first time an animal has been injured in an encounter with a charged plate, said Bloor.

"Unfortunately, I think it has happened to other dogs that simply take a tinkle on a post, and it's live."

The department was declining media requests for photos of Bear in hospital and was not releasing the name of Bear's handler, who has reportedly had little sleep since the accident.

Dog squad Sergeant-in-charge Gord McGuinness said the animals are very special to their handlers.

"These dogs are more than dogs to their handlers," McGuinness said. "They're family members. They're with you 24 hours a day. Some of them have saved officers' lives, and they'll go to the ends of the earth to save their dogs."

He said CPR on a dog is "relatively easy -- you just keep his mouth closed and you blow into his nasal cavities. Then you just do, almost like a human, chest compressions, just back from the upper shoulder."

He said Bear was a precocious recruit whose training began when he was just a year old -- canine squad animals are usually six to 12 months older than that.

"He's a good, hard-working dog," McGuinness said. "He was a dog that I brought in from Saskatchewan. I don't like to start training dogs until they're 18 months to two years, but he showed the propensity to do the work.

"All through training he excelled. He had your typical puppy attitude but we worked through that."