Don't think it's pain. A dog I had would come running into the roon and howl when I played harmonica. Also hated thunderstorms and would try to dig through the rung to get to safety. I figure if the ptich hurt the ears, I would have had a lot more holes in the rug.
Steve

MY dog howls along with my C-keyed box every time he is around when I am playing. He seems to enjoy it??

Our cats don't like the sound of one accordion, but they don't howl when I'm playing.
Most of the time they are going away.
The dog of our fiddle player and his wife is most of the time sleeping when we playing with the band ????
The dogs name is Fiddle !!!

My late dog Maggie (17 years) always howled along when I played the C accordion. Love Bridge Waltz in G really made her sing. It was amazing. The other keys never got the same response. But whenever I pulled out that C and hit a note, there she was ready to sing.

Some years ago, I hosted a jam at our house. A harmonica player showed up to play. When he took a solo, our Airedale Glenn sat down right in front of Dave and let loose with a deep hooooooowl. Dave stopped, looked at Glenn and said "I'm not that bad"...the rest of us just busted up laughing. Something I'll always remember. I loved that dog and always thought that Glenn was a good judge of character and perhaps musical talent as well. In all fairness, the harp player has gotten a lot better in recent years.

Rob K.

i'm fairly certain my 6 year old dog hates it. i'm not that bad of a player (nor that great) but i can pretend to play by pushing and pulling with the air button only and he goes ape sh*t (mostly barking but will howl too) because he knows it's coming. although if i tell him to stop a few times he will but that doesn't mean he likes it. who knows.