Known as “man’s best friend” for so many reasons, dogs have long held a special place in the hearts of millions of Americans. Their presence has helped many of us (along with generous amounts of chocolate) to remain sane and get through this extraordinarily challenging time.
But there’s one interesting fact about our four-footed pals, you might not know.
We recently learned that dogs have far fewer taste buds than humans do (about 1,700 compared to our 9,000). This means that dogs really can’t taste a lot of the food we give them. It’s the smell of food that attracts them. That might be one reason why your canine pal seems to love to raid the trash can so often – if what’s in it smells interesting, it doesn’t matter so much what it tastes like. Not surprisingly, the dogs we’ve spoken to relish the fact that cats have a mere 470 taste buds. (Thanks to the folks at pageaday.com for this fun fact.)
PS But remember, don’t feed your canine friend chocolate.