Being able to taste and discern between different foods is a sense that’s invaluable to humans. If you’re a dog owner, you might wonder if dogs share this important sense and can taste their foods using taste buds similar to ours. Dogs have taste buds and, in some respects, their sense of taste is more important (but much weaker) than ours.

If you’re hungry to know more about dogs and their taste buds, including fascinating facts about dogs tasting things, read on! We’ll discuss a dog’s sense of taste and how vital it is to their health and wellness.

The 7 Dog Tasting Facts

1. Dogs Have Fewer Taste Buds Than Humans

On average, dogs have far fewer taste buds than humans, around 1,700 to our 9,000. One interesting fact about taste buds is that dogs and humans see a reduction in the number of taste buds they have as they age, with both species seeing a decline in their sense of taste, meaning a reduction in taste sensitivity for both species over time.

---

2. Dogs Sense the Same Four Tastes as Humans

Dogs have far fewer taste buds than humans, but can dogs sense the same four tastes as humans, which are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter?

Yes, your dog can sense the same four tastes that you can. That’s important because it helps dogs discern between foods that have too much salt, are too sweet, or are sour or bitter. This sense also drives a dog to seek water when it eats foods that are too high in salt, which is vital to its overall health.

---

3. Dogs Don’t Crave Salt Like Humans

Even though dogs can taste salt, they don’t crave salt nearly as much as humans. The reason is simple; dogs evolved to eat foods that had all the nutrients they needed without adding salt. Since they were already getting enough salt in their diet, dogs never developed the same taste receptors that humans have, which are well-tuned to taste salt. That still holds today and means that healthy dog food should not have a high-salt content.

---

4. Dogs Can Taste Water

Although humans can taste flavors in water, we don’t have taste buds specialized to taste H20. Dogs, however, have specific taste buds that can sense water and are located right on the tips of their tongues. This helps your dog know when it’s drinking water and when to drink more water, like after a meal or snack that’s sweet or salty. Unfortunately, we still don’t know the exact taste a dog perceives when it drinks water, only that it’s specific to the invaluable liquid. But it may explain why some dogs get a bit carried away at the water bowl!

---

5. Dogs Taste With Their Sense of Smell

We know that dogs have far fewer taste buds than humans, but they have a far keener sense of smell. That’s because dogs have about 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, while humans have 6 million. Also, the canine brain processes and analyzes smell about 40 times better than the average human brain.

That means that a dog’s sense of smell plays an important role when it comes to tasting food. They can smell when food is “bad,” avoid that food, and determine if something is inedible, although that doesn’t seem to necessarily stop some dogs from eating those indelible things, like this stone-eating Springer Spaniel!

---

6. Some Dogs Prefer Warm, Moist Food

Although most will eat dry food, some dogs prefer moist and warm food more. Moist, warm foods give off much stronger aromas that your dog will “taste” with their keen sense of smell. Warming also brings any fat in the food you feed your dog to the surface of their food bowl and releases more food aromas into the surrounding environment. Food straight from the fridge is often rejected as it doesn’t tend to give off as much odor.

---

7. Dogs Have Taste Buds in the Back of Their Throats

You might wonder why a dog’s sense of taste is so important when, on most days, they scarf down their food like they’ve been trapped for months on a deserted island. However, even though they eat quickly, your dog can still taste its food from their keen sense of smell and the taste buds in the back of their throat. Even if they never chew their food, the taste buds in the back of your dog’s throat tell them what they’ve just eaten.

In Conclusion

Knowing your dog has taste buds can be very helpful when picking and choosing what to feed your favorite furry friend. That includes staying away from salty and spicy foods and giving your dog plenty of fresh, clean water. Whatever you choose to feed your dog, knowing what they’re hard-wired to eat and what they enjoy is useful information. It’s also useful to know how important smell is to a dog’s sense of taste. We hope the info provided today has expanded your canine knowledge and will help you feed your dog a nutritious diet that it enjoys thoroughly.

---

Featured Image Credit: Alejandro rodriguez, Shutterstock