Thief II: The Metal Age Dog Names

Dog, is the dog's name really "Dog"? Not exactly. Turns out, there is no singular dog in the entire Thief series. There are several. And what's more is that they are all enemies. 

In the series, dogs are what you would call "stationary obstacles." Picture a scene in your mind for reference: there's an alley with crates scattered throughout for cover. It's dark enough to hide safely. But your objective is to keep following this alley along until you reach a corner onto the street, where there's streetlamps. Cover is sparse there, and the light posts are placed right where you ideally would need to walk past to get to safety. 

That is an obstacle, and because as we all know streetlamps don't have legs to walk on, they're also stationary. Although dogs can certainly move, and have agile legs, they are only portrayed one way in the series: in cages. That means they're stationary. The cage can't go anywhere without assistance, which of course, never happens.  

Garrett's (protagonist/playable character) mission is to get past them undetected. 

And if you've ever tried to get past a sleeping dog undetected, you know that's a challenging thing to do. Dogs have an incredible sense of smell, making detection extremely easy. They can sense movement and are hardwired to react at the slightest of changes in their environment. Unsurprisingly, if Garrett gets close within a dog's field of view, it will start sniffing in his direction. This is essentially your warning that you're too close, and if you stay, the dog will bark, alerting everyone nearby. Yes, dogs are alarm systems for the bad guys. Smart, isn't it? 

Garrett's only option is to get out of sight before being detected or use a smart and perfectly safe form of misdirection. For instance, choke arrows are in the game. These specific type of arrows are used to release a noxious and suffocating gas momentarily incapacitating the target. Its effects aren't long-lasting, but it gives Garrett just enough time to get by without actually causing any harm. 

All the arrows will do is cause difficulty breathing for a few seconds, making humans cough. The issue there is that they will immediately be suspicious, so again, Garrett needs to keep moving. On animals, however, it causes a different reaction: rather than causing coughing fits, it just gently puts them to sleep for a small window of time.