Fantastic, I love reading about canine learning. Seeing Patricia McConnell's (of "The Other End of the Leash" fame) adornment of it is a huge reason for me to buy this book. Training my dog with that book (and Don't Shoot the Dog, by Pryor) framing how I interpret what my dog tells me has been hugely beneficial for both my sanity, and I'm sure my dog's as well.

The Billion Dollar Mind Trick: An Intro To Triggers

http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/04/billion-dollar-mind-trick.h...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3881370

  > This article skims the surface of habit formation
  > 
  > - HN commenter

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business

http://www.amzn.com/1400069289

  > [using the habit loop] cycle to structure habits in your own life 
  > 
  > - HN commenter

Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training

http://www.amzn.com/1860542387

  > a manual and a philosophy for solving the problems in your life caused by 
  > other's behavior, whether it is your husband, your children, your pets, or
  > your co-workers 
  > 
  > - Amazon reviewer

Raising (and properly training) a dog is wonderful opportunity for the trainer. You'll practice patience, creativity, empathy, and the value of having a long-term plan. These are maybe not bad skills to develop as a hacker or startup founder.

That said, some of the most trainable dogs are the easiest to get into trouble with and I speak from experience. Most people probably don't have enough experience to gauge the effort or different ways to undertake a dog training program.

I recommend Karen Pryor's "Don't Shoot the Dog" for people interested in training philosophy. Be aware, there are rabid (sorry, couldn't resist) advocates for various dog training approaches online and they take great pleasure in destroying forums, online discussions, and generally making sure that only their viewpoint is "the one true way."

People are really ridiculously similar to dogs and other animals; the response to negative reinforcement or negative punishment is at worst uniformly negative, or at best inconsistent and unpredictable. Positive reinforcement results in a positive behavioral change without negative side-effects. Truly the best way to change behavior, yet people still believe that negativity is necessary, especially in the corporate and beaurocratic world. Mind-bogglingly uninformed, to put it lightly.

*edit: sorry for the comparison to dogs (I have some background in animal training); but I hope at least the connection of corporate policy to empirical behavioral science and psychology isn't the cause of the downvoting... anyway if you're interested, a great book is "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor. And on the business side, W. Edwards Deming's seminal work "Out of the Crisis." Essentially both show a proven way of dealing with any living thing that's based on positive behavior and proven statistical methods and science rather than outdated and misguided beliefs about punishment and motivation that are now known to be less effective in the long term. Simple psychology, statistics, and science.