What Does It Taste Like?

 Evolution of the Sense of Taste in Our Canines

The sense of taste evolved from direct interactions of the first living things with the chemical soup in which they were immersed.  In fact, the dog’s sense of taste develops before birth!  And, while their sense of taste is far less developed than that of humans, they use it for determining the palatability of food, stimulation of saliva, pancreatic, and gastric secretions.

 The dog’s ability to discriminate between disgusting and appetizing serves as a survival tool; the item may be poisonous, indigestible, or even harmful if detected as disgusting.  Good tastes are generally digestible, useful substances.

In our canine connoisseurs, the sense of taste is detected as in humans, by taste buds on the surface of the tongue, at the back of the throat, the mucosa of the palate, the epiglottis and the pharynx.  Interestingly, the taste senses are functional in the dog from birth, but require a few weeks to reach complete maturity.

 To taste something, the chemicals in the substance must be broken down with saliva.  A dog has a total of four pairs of salivary glands: under the tongue, at the back of the mouth, under the eye, and behind the ear.  They also have different types of saliva that are used dependent upon the type of feed that they eat-either watery, or mucosal in nature.

 Taste sensitivity is correlated to the number and type of taste buds in a similar way as sensitivity to smells depends upon the number of olfactory receptors.  Dogs have just over 1700 taste buds compared to their humans who have only about 9,000.

The average life span for a taste bud is approximately three days and must be replaced regularly.  Naturally with age the dog’s ability to reproduce or regenerate the cells declines dramatically.

 Dogs have a great attraction to all things sweet which can ultimately end in death!  One of the most common sources of poisonings involves dogs drinking antifreeze, which contains ethylene glycol that activates the dog’s sweet tooth.  As little as two ounces can kill a dog of medium size.

 In contrast to their affinity for sweets, the canine has a short lived retention capacity for remembering that it does not like bitter tastes even though the dog’s tongue is extremely sensitive to this taste sensation.  Within as short a time as 24 hours after having eaten something bitter and highly unpleasant, the dog will return to the source and try again…Rather dogged in it’s pursuit of treats.

 Our dog companions have taste buds that respond to water, unlike humans.  This taste sense is located at the top of the tongue and is on alert at all times.  When sugary or salty foods have been eaten, a dog’s sensitivity to water’s taste increases.  Possibly, the “water sense” is the dog’s mechanism for keeping his body fluids balanced.