A man was shot in the leg while laying in bed with a female friend – and claims his pet dog was the one who pulled the trigger.

Jerald Kirkwood, from Memphis, Tennessee, was ‘relaxing/talking’ with an unidentified woman in his bedroom at around 4am on Monday when his dog Oreo decided to jump on the bed.

Oreo, a one-year-old pitbull terrier, was so excited to enter the bedroom that he allegedly stepped on a gun lying on the floor and got his paw stuck in a trigger guard, which caused the weapon to go off.

Kirkwood was hit by the bullet and suffered a grazing wound on his left thigh, and was treated at the scene by paramedics.

He was later taken to hospital in a non-critical condition for further treatment. Before the paramedics arrived, Kirkwood’s female friend reportedly left the scene and took the gun with her.

‘There was a freak incident, and the dog jumped up and caused the gun to discharge,’ said a friend of the wounded man.

The friend also insisted that the pitbull is very friendly and that his Kirkwood is fine.

A police report said: ‘When officers asked the victim where the weapon was, he advised that the female friend took it when she left.’

One shell casing was recovered at the scene.

Police filed the incident as an ‘accidental injury.’