It can be rather weird how your dog reacts to visitors. The person knocking on your door might be a close friend, someone who your dog has met countless times, and yet from their aggression you would be forgiven for thinking that a stranger was waiting on your doorstep. Then there are dogs who would happily roll over and let a visitor tickle their belly, regardless of whether the visitor is a friend or a total stranger. Some dogs are good alarm systems, and others are definitely not. If you're considering installing a home security system of the technological kind, the fact that you have a dog at all will influence your choice of system.

Sensor Fields

It could be thought that a home with a dog might have some problems when it comes to the effective usage of an alarm system. Surely the movement of your dog throughout your home would trigger the alarm multiple times each day? In some cases, yes, this is exactly what could happen. Perhaps the trick is to alter your new alarm's sensor field to only read the upper sections of a room, so that your dog could move harmlessly beneath the sensor? This can be an option, and yet it would be easy enough for an intruder to simply move on hands and knees to also avoid triggering the alarm. This is an unlikely scenario (how would an intruder know the settings of the sensor?), but it's a scenario that can be avoided altogether.

Passive Infrared Sensor

When choosing an alarm system, opt for one that has a passive infrared sensor. This type of sensor is able to make a distinction between humans and dogs based on the mass of the subject and the subsequent amount of body heat that this mass generates. Unless you happen to have a truly giant breed of dog with a body weight and mass commensurate with a human, then the passive infrared sensor in your alarm system will not generate any false alarms.

Facial Recognition

Another option is to avoid traditional alarm systems and get something specifically designed to register the presence of a human. A discreet motion sensor camera with facial recognition capabilities can be trained just inside each entrance to your home, which activates when someone enters. You, along with everyone who lives in your home and any frequent visitors, can be added to the system's database. Each person who enters is cross-checked against this database, and if the system doesn't recognise them, an alarm can be activated -- or you can simply receive a picture notification on your smartphone, allowing you to initiate the alarm and contact authorities if someone is in fact breaking in. Such a system will not be triggered by your dog, as it only recognises human forms.

When your dog isn't enough of an alarm system for your liking, make sure you choose a system that recognises your dog as the friend they are, even if your dog isn't so good at recognising your other friends.

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