Should I have predicted a lab animal would become more aggressive?

There are steps you can take to prevent this type of incident in the future:

• Change the animal’s environment or training so it can feel more secure. If you’re going to handle the animal in a way it’s not used to, like turning it upside down or giving it an injection, be mindful of its reaction. If a procedure might cause slight pain or fear, the animal might react with the natural “flight-or-fight” response and tend to bite. To adjust for this, have someone give it special attention at other times, perhaps stroke it gently or offer it treats so that it accepts that person’s touch. Then have them handle it in the way that’s needed until it gradually becomes used to that motion or position before actually doing the procedure.

• Work with your attending vet to see if there’s a medical problem. Perhaps the animal has a condition, such as arthritis, so that handling is painful. If that’s the case, your techs should be trained to work with such animals.

• Perhaps there’s an environmental issue. If the dog is at the end of a rack, it can’t see people approaching and might be easily startled. Perhaps move it so it can see people coming — or condition it by having everyone alert it by voice when they approach.

• The issue could be the animal’s training or temperament. The dog might have come from a line of animals with integration issues and thus not be suitable for research at all.

• You’re attributing the incident to just that person, and that’s possible. But did the person do something? Did the dog “learn” to not trust that person? This tech may not have been trained sufficiently or may be missing some remedial training on safe dog handling. If this was a particularly difficult animal, a higher level of training may have been required. If so, you might have been better served to assign another tech.

Keep in mind that handling of all same-study dogs must be uniform. There was something affecting that dog, and it could impact the results of your research. Behavior is never absolute. Nine times out of 10, it’s just a growling dog, but it always has the potential to be a biting dog.

The bottom line is that you can resolve unruly-animal issues only by finding out what’s behind their behavior.