I wouldn't fault the authors too much, they just looked for an easy to remember name and the metaphor holds up well enough for that.
Really, if you wanna do path finding, a dog park will give you tons and tons of food for thought.
Some dogs are very clever. Others dumb as a post.
Insects and other animals are also good for inspiration. Even microbes!
There are some microbes that essentially follow this small program to find sugars:
- swim forward - wiggle around randomly - repeat
When the concentration of sugars is increasing, spend more time swimming forward. Otherwise, spend less time swimming between wiggles.
In a game, you would have the player leave a scent trail, and some of the other critters could behave like above.
I wouldn't fault the authors too much, they just looked for an easy to remember name and the metaphor holds up well enough for that.