I could be wrong, but I believe (because of depressions) dog food needs to be human edible.

I personally feel bad when I feed my dogs shitty treats. So yeah, I taste them. Turns out the chicken jerky is actually pretty good. Like I would probably buy some marketed for humans. Everything else is shit. My dogs generally have a similar reaction (expressed by their eagerness to eat what I have).

Aside from that, dogs generally prefer the stinkiest treats you can find.

Sounds like someone has never had a dog.

Isn't the marketing directed to the dog owners (humans) to disclose what animal produce their product (I.e., "chicken flavored") contains, more than advertising a distinctive taste as usually the case with human targeted edibles?

Does not align with my experience. Some dogs I've had expressed strong food preferences and would absolutely refuse certain foods to the point of near starvation. Others would eat anything and everything.

Honestly, dog treats and dog food should also taste good to humans if they actually were just what they say they are. Bland, perhaps, but not disgusting.

Except when the dog spits it out and won't eat it

Have you never eaten dog treats?

I tried dog ice cream once because how bad could ice cream be?

bad.

You don't eat a tester piece first?

My husband will regularlly taste the sog treats. I think it’s gross but he says most of them are fine but need salt. He doesn’t taste the kibble or wet food though. Nor the lamb lung, nor the dental chews. I guess chicken jerky and salmon skin shouldn’t really be a problem anyway?

I once tried a peanut butter dog treat after checking the label for anything weird. It just tasted like a stale, sugarless peanut butter cookie. Rather uneventful tbh

Get a veterinarian friend in your life, they have great stories.

In this story time, it's about pet food companies and veterinarian students. See, if a veterinarian recommends a certain food, is any reasonable owner taking their pet to said veterinarian going to not at least try that food? So pet food companies will give enormous discounts to veterinarian students. They want to hook them on it. They'll bring in cartloads of their brand and nearly give it away to the students. My friend had a small side hustle reselling the stuff. His girlfriend was feeding her cat something like $300 worth of the super premium food a month... for the low price of $30. His mother was getting 80lbs of some premium brand dog food every month. It was nuts.

They also, in these little giveaways and 'seminars' put on, answer all the questions the vets might ever be asked by clients later on... which is why this is relevant to this post. See, they'll freely admit that every food is more or less taste-tested by humans first. So when they say 'bacon' or 'pumpkin spice' or such, it's really because the human that tasted it said so (and also because they already knew what it was going to taste like, the folks making the product aren't exactly stupid in the first place).

Also also... how does anyone not know what things taste like before putting them in your mouth? I can think of nearly nothing that doesn't smell so close to how it tastes that it makes no difference. So just go sniff the treat and you can tell.

My dog does not chew her food, so how could she taste it? She threw up once a little while after eating and it came out as if it was direct from the bag (but wetter). This was dry dog food. Yes, she ate it again before I could get a dust pan to scoop it up.

Trained her with little ice cubes. She thought they were treats.