House alarm but have a dog!

rev229

We would like to install a house alarm but we have a dog! She is quite good at barking and would deter any burgler I hope. However if they offered her food and a belly rub she would let them in! she sleeps downstairs at night or occasionally on the top step of the stairs! Is this possible?

booty40uk

Pretty much all alarm systems are split into zones which can be turned on in any manner of combinations. ie you could have your upstairs and downstairs motion sensors on 2 seperate zones which you wouldnt need to turn on at night. You could just leave them off and have the door and window contacts activated as normal. Quite easy to set up if you read all the instructions with your system.

HTH

Andy

ali-t

Yes, I have a 'pet friendly' alarm and although it was slightly more expensive than non pet alarm it was worth it.

I am not very technical but it is one of the ones with the red light (is it a pir?) and I believe the sensors have a partial shield at the bottom which prevents the sensor from being triggered until a particular height is reached. Mine is set at around 1' above the height of the sofa seat so if the dog tried to sit ontop of the sofa it would go off but I have never had any problems with this.

If you google pet friendly alarms there is loads of choice out there.

HappyMJ

Agree so far. Use door and window sensors on full alarm and get it to beep instead of the full alarm if the internal sensors are triggered. If the dog triggers the beep too much it can be disabled.

Mankysteve

Happy is right, Just pay for extra door and window sensors on there own zone then have your movement sensor on a separate zone. Make sure you either get a monitored alarm or one that can dial out to numbers you select.

Dan_Iggulden

I have used pet PIR's on my system, they are great as long as your pet is small, anything bigger than about 5kg in weight and they are no good. If it's a small dog, I would consider finding a system that supports pet friendly PIR's.
If not, then as others say, find an alarm that gives you a partial arm setting where you can choose what zones are active. I wouldn't personally bother with a monitored alarm, as you have to pay a monthly fee, but definately get a GSM one that will text/call you or others if the alarm is triggered.

ali-t

Dan_Iggulden wrote: »

I have used pet PIR's on my system, they are great as long as your pet is small, anything bigger than about 5kg in weight and they are no good. .

I have a 20kg staffy and a 50kg rottweiler and mine is fine. Why do you think they are no use on dogs over 5kg?

Dan_Iggulden

I always assumed that it gave a small tolerance for how much movement it would detect before triggering the alarm. To be honest I don't know!! I was just advised it was fine for small pets under 5kg!!

ali-t

From memory, when I got mine put in around 5 years ago there are plastic things that are put infront of the pir and these can be adjusted to whatever height you require but if they are too high (e.g. for cats that jump on worktops) it would defeat the purpose as any housebreaker could crawl along the floor and not trigger the PIR.

Dan_Iggulden

Is it a wireless system you have?

Biggles

They're very aware of that sort of thing and will run through all the options when they come to give you quotes.