Question: My mum's dog sang when her brother played the recorder or violin. Do dogs react differently to these instruments?

Joanna Cruden answered on 18 Jun 2012:

Nobody really knows for sure but it is all down to communication. Howling or singing is a dogs way of communicating, maybe it hears the violin as another dog howling so it howls back, or it may be that the dog wants you to know it is part of the pack and starts to howl with you because it thinks your brother is howling.

There are some theories that the sounds dogs howl to hurt their ears but I am not sure this is right.