Dogs do feel stress. I know this personally as we had this terrific beagle for 15 years that certainly knew when things weren't right on the home front. Although he was my "baby", I work full time while my husband had to retire at 49 years of age due to health reasons, so Beag expected my husband to be home with him during the day.
Once my husband went out to the west coast for two weeks to visit his brother. When he returned we met him at the airport with our dog, Legal Beagle (the airport allowed dogs into the airport as long as the dog was on a leash. When Legal Beagle saw my husband Gord, he ran up to him and kissed him and squealed and carried on for a couple of minutes, then he stepped back, looked at him, and promptly bit him on the arm, as if to say, "I am glad you are back, don't do that again."
Another time Gord had a heart attack. Beag was with him at the time (I was a work) and stayed by his side, laying next to him, refusing to leave him. It was only when Gord had an out-of-body experience feeling very peaceful while viewing himself from a vantage point as if he was bumping the ceiling of the room while looking down and seeing himself laying on the bed with the dog by his side that he truly appreciated that he was in a life or death situation and had to get to the hospital. Gord was admitted to hospital, only to be released and readmitted three times over a 2 week period.
Beag coped with Gord's absences in his own way, he got several pairs of Gord's jeans and dragged them to the back door (leaving mine alone), and he ripped several pillows on the couch, over the course of several days, ripping them just so the stuffing would be ready to spill out, but without tossing it about the room, demonstrating his self control but still making a statement. This was the only time that Beag ever damaged any furniture or dragged Gord's clothes anywhere, so to me these were signs of his level of stress.
No one can tell me that dogs don't feel stress. I know different.
