The sensors that detect movement on your home's alarm system are there to make you feel safe and to protect your property. They give you a great sense of security. However, they can also give you a few headaches if you have pets. For example, cats and dogs can both trigger motion sensors setting off false alarms on a regular basis. This can be irritating enough for you but spare a thought for your poor neighbours who may end up cross as a frog in a sock if they must listen to regular false alarms when you're not at home and your pet has danced the fandango in front of a sensor.

What can you do to reduce the number of pet-related false alarms on your security system?

Adjust Your Controls

You may be able to make changes to the settings of your home security system to compensate for the fact that you've got pets that might trigger its alarm. These changes may depend on the type of alarm you use.

For example, if your system works on active motion, your sensors will simply detect any motion that comes into their range. In this case, your best option may be to change the range of your sensor or camera to position it so that it sweeps higher than your pet's height. Technically, your pet should then be able to walk around without triggering an alarm, but a taller human intruder would still set off the sensor.

Bear in mind that adjusting a sensor's height may not always work, especially if you have a cat that likes to climb on stuff or a dog that jumps really high.

If your system uses passive sensors, then most alarms will be triggered by heat as well as movement. Adjusting the sensitivity levels of this kind of system may enable it to ignore the smaller heat pattern that comes off a pet while still giving an alarm for a human intruder.

After adjusting sensor height or sensitivity, make sure to check that your system can still detect human activity in its range. After making changes, it's worth setting the alarm and having someone walk in front of the sensor to check it works.

Give Your Pet an Alarm Free Space

If you can't change your alarm's controls, or prefer not to, then you could consider limiting your pet's activity to a certain room or area where you don't have sensors. This may not give you a happy pet; however, it would at least reduce the number of false alarms you and your neighbours have to deal with.

If you're having regular problems with pet false alarms, contact a local security systems company. It may help to get specialist advice on any changes you can make to your existing alarm system or to look at an upgrade that might be a little more pet-friendly.