Harry (left) and Sally (right)
My partner and I (never having dogs as kids) adopted two dogs from the nearby animal shelter in 2017. They were two small terrier mixes – we named them Harry and Sally.
After a number of walks, I noticed them sniffing around and marking their smell all throughout the neighborhood, I started to notice a parallel to area control board games.
- Dogs mark their smell to assert some form of “presence” in the neighborhood
- Dog tend to mark the same spot
- Harry would (90% of the time) immediately mark after (and over) Sally’s spot
More and more, I began to see similarities with how dogs mark spots to how an area control board game works.
- Dogs characteristically likes to asset dominance over other dogs
- Dogs have the pack mentality and have a sense of hierarchy (the “alpha” dog)
Eventually, this served as the catalyst for Alpha. Even to this day, I look towards Harry and Sally’s behavior as a guide to Alpha. So far, it’s been great!
Harry likes to sun bathe
More sun bathing
The Board Game Journey 
Leave a Reply