ouch!

[Stefan-A]

I think you might be making it a bit more complicated than it needs to be. I think it's more likely that it just started associating the hand with danger.
Blood = danger
Blood + hand = danger
=> hand = blood = danger
=> hand = danger.

Or maybe I'm just bored out of my mind. Anyway, just guessing again.

[Morph]

I think you might be making it a bit more complicated than it needs to be. I think it's more likely that it just started associating the hand with danger.
Blood = danger
Blood + hand = danger
=> hand = blood = danger
=> hand = danger.

Or maybe I'm just bored out of my mind. Anyway, just guessing again.

the only problem i can see with that theory is that the animal had no problem before with hands. The reason i immediately think addreniline is because its the bodies preparation for defence and attack so if an animal "smells" adreniline then it assumes either attack or defence is likely to occur.

[Stefan-A]

the only problem i can see with that theory is that the animal had no problem before with hands. The reason i immediately think addreniline is because its the bodies preparation for defence and attack so if an animal "smells" adreniline then it assumes either attack or defence is likely to occur.

I was trying to describe the development.

This would be the original association:
Blood = danger

This would have been the observation the animal made during the incident:
Blood + hand = danger
Since blood is instinctively associated with danger, the new observation is the hand.

Like ringing a bell made Pavlov's dogs start salivating, the effect would have been much the same here:
hand = blood = danger

And finally the shortened version of the previous step:
hand = danger