Dogs do have taste buds, but they have far fewer than humans—about 1,700 compared to roughly 9,000 in humans. Their taste buds allow them to discern the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, similar to humans. However, dogs also have special taste buds tuned specifically for water, which humans do not have. Despite having fewer taste buds and a less sensitive sense of taste compared to humans, dogs compensate with an extremely powerful sense of smell that plays a major role in how they experience flavors. Dogs rely more on their sense of smell than taste when deciding what to eat, which is why aroma often influences their food preferences more than taste alone. Dogs have taste buds located on different areas of their tongue, sensitive to different flavors: bitter and sour toward the back, salty and sweet toward the front. Their taste receptors are particularly fine-tuned to meat and fat- related flavors, reflecting their ancestral diet. Their combined senses of taste, smell, and texture help dogs determine what foods are safe and appealing.