my wife's hairdryer is plugged into a live mains socket. She switches the hairdryer on this morning from the handset, only to find our new puppy has chewed through the mains lead between the plug and handset.
The puppy is fine. How is this possible ? How is the puppy still alive ?

I disengage, I turn the page.

Don't worry too much, if the puppy is a male the electricity will be stored in the body. The first time he has rumpy pumpy he Will light up like pinball machine

Not quite true.

When a supply is shorted it will draw power, effectively the puppy would become the appliance drawing power.
Not sure why it didn't trip the RCD on your distribution board. Was the socket switched on?

Simple.
He's a 'Chew-wire-wire'.

(Run away emoji needed!)

Buy Litecoin.

I think this is the answer.

The fuse in the plug was probably a 13a, now to blow that would require a charge big enough to knock over an elephant.
Are the sockets all working now, or have you had to reset a RCD or earth trip? If there was a leak to earth, the earth and neutral touching, then that would trip an earth breaker, which would have saved puppy getting too bad a shock.

Otherwise you might have a superdog on your hands. Just be careful when you are chastising him for pooing on the floor!!

very good tux....

always a Norwood boy, where ever I live.