Dogs are capable of understanding and responding to human body language and commands, indicating some degree of social cognition. The goal of this work was to determine if dogs that have a better relationship with their owner (e.g., more frequent interactions with owner, more social support, fewer negative aspects of living with a dog) have better social cognition and higher salivary oxytocin levels, as this is positively correlated with social relationships. Twenty-six French bulldogs and their owners participated in the study. Relationship with the owner was measured using the dogs' salivary oxytocin content and the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS), which consists of three subscales: Dog-owner interaction, emotional closeness, and negative aspects of living with a dog. The dogs' social cognition was measured using a two-way object choice test. This is a test in which the dog is presented with two bowls at the same time and must choose the correct bowl with the reward based on a pointing gesture from the human. The main results show that social cognition is better in male and untrained dogs, in dogs that repeatedly approached the bowl in a straight line, and in dogs whose owners perceived fewer negative aspects of living with dogs. In our study, oxytocin had no effect on dogs' cognition, contradicting the hypothesis. We conclude, that dogs, whose owners are more satisfied with the dog's ownership and not hindered by it, perform better in social cognition.
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