My dog is the biggest love in my life... but there is a downside. Every night, we'll be woken up at 2am when she plods down the stairs, rearranges her bedding, or worse, barks at... nothing!
While the now traditional midnight bark is frustrating, it does reassure us that if we were to suffer a break in, our guard dog would let us know.
Or would she...?
A few weeks ago we had a friend staying at our home. He decided to go out for a few drinks so we gave him a key.
At 4am the front door opened, the friend entered but... our guard dog did nothing!
Where was my midnight bark? Where was my burglar deterrent?
So now we have a problem...
To be protected, we need a home security system. But because we have a dog, it needs to be a pet friendly burglar alarm. So how does that work?
With the right intruder alarm system, it's not a problem.
The majority of burglar alarms use Passive Infrared (PIR) sensors which can detect movement using infrared light.
However, to get a pet friendly alarm, you need a motion sensor that knows the difference between you and your Chihuahua. Some sensors can't do this because they only have one field of view.
Whether it's friend or foe, the sensor is going to pick up the movement and send a signal to the control panel, which triggers the alarm to sound.
This is a problem if your pets are free to roam around inside your home. Do you really want the inconvenience of remembering to lock your dog or cat into a safe room because your house alarm isn't pet friendly?
Some PIRs have more than one field of view. These need to be activated together for the movement to trigger the alarm. For example, you could have one at chest height and one at leg height.
So if your dog jumps onto the sofa, they won't activate the alarm because they won't trigger both motion detectors at the same time.
Other sensors pick up different signals, like weight. These can be programmed to suit all creatures great and small.
This means whether you're sleeping upstairs, or out and about, neither you, your neighbours nor the Police will suffer false alarms because of your furry friend.
Well, you could get the equipment yourself and install it. But that might mean you have to turn off your system because it consistently raises false alarms.
If you want a monitored alarm with Police response, then avoiding false activations is imperative - or your alarm will be struck off their register.
Checking for NSI Gold or SSAIB Accreditation means that you'll get a qualified installer who knows what they're doing. You'll also get a good quality system, fitted and maintained to industry standards.
More importantly, your pet friendly house alarm will be designed for the particular requirements of you and your animals.
It's Blake's NSI Gold and SSAIB accreditations that allow us to pass our expertise on to homeowners like you. And now you can benefit from our years of experience and knowledge in home security!
Take this five minute quiz to find out how safe your home is. Use it to look at your home through a burglar's eyes... is it really as safe as you thought?
