Automatic teat treatment method for carrying out a pre- or post-treatment operation on the teats of an individual dairy animal having n teats, said method being performed using a pre- or post-treatment robot apparatus with a control system, said robot apparatus being capable of carrying a treating device on an arm thereof, said method comprising the steps of: establishing a start time t 0 for said pre- or post-treatment operation, establishing the presence of an animal at a pre- or post-treatment location, and: (i) initiating automatic detection of the spatial teat position of a first one of said teats of said individual animal at said pre- or post-treatment location and (ii) registering the spatial position of said detected individual animal's teat, and (iii) deriving, by means of said control system, a dedicated teat-treating action for treating said teat, and (iv) initiating and carrying out said teat-treating action on said detected teat at said detected spatial position to thereby treat said teat, and (v) repeating said initiating, registering, deriving, and treating steps i-iv once in respect of each successive teat of said animal until all its n teats are treated and thereafter retracting the robot arm away from the animal to a retracted position; wherein if, after said start time to, a predefined point in time t d is passed before any of the preceding steps is completed, the method according to steps i-v is interrupted and a default treating action for treating all remaining untreated teats is derived and carried out by the treatment apparatus and thereafter said robot arm is retracted. establishing a start time t 0 for said pre- or post-treatment operation, establishing the presence of an animal at a pre- or post-treatment location, and: (i) initiating automatic detection of the spatial teat position of a first one of said teats of said individual animal at said pre- or post-treatment location and (ii) registering the spatial position of said detected individual animal's teat, and (iii) deriving, by means of said control system, a dedicated teat-treating action for treating said teat, and (iv) initiating and carrying out said teat-treating action on said detected teat at said detected spatial position to thereby treat said teat, and (v) repeating said initiating, registering, deriving, and treating steps i-iv once in respect of each successive teat of said animal until all its n teats are treated and thereafter retracting the robot arm away from the animal to a retracted position; (i) initiating automatic detection of the spatial teat position of a first one of said teats of said individual animal at said pre- or post-treatment location and (ii) registering the spatial position of said detected individual animal's teat, and (iii) deriving, by means of said control system, a dedicated teat-treating action for treating said teat, and (iv) initiating and carrying out said teat-treating action on said detected teat at said detected spatial position to thereby treat said teat, and (v) repeating said initiating, registering, deriving, and treating steps i-iv once in respect of each successive teat of said animal until all its n teats are treated and thereafter retracting the robot arm away from the animal to a retracted position; wherein if, after said start time to, a predefined point in time t d is passed before any of the preceding steps is completed, the method according to steps i-v is interrupted and a default treating action for treating all remaining untreated teats is derived and carried out by the treatment apparatus and thereafter said robot arm is retracted.