My cousin's dog kept setting off the motion detector during setup

I was putting in a new alarm system for my cousin's place over the weekend. Their big dog, a golden retriever, would not stop wandering into the room where I had the motion sensor active. Every time I armed the system for a test, the dog tripped it. Ended up having to rearrange the sensor placement to avoid pet paths, which took extra time. My cousin joked that the dog was just helping with quality control. It got me thinking about how pet owners need specific setup advice. What adjustments do you make for homes with animals? I bet a lot of you have faced this.

4 comments

4 Comments

diana_jenkins651mo ago

My sister's labrador always trips the downstairs sensor. I had to mount the motion detector above seven feet to avoid false alarms. Now the system works fine unless the dog gets on the couch.

the_piper1mo ago

Start by watching how pets move daily. @diana_jenkins65's high mount works for labs, but what about pets that change routines? Would they ever stop triggering alarms over time?

juliarodriguez1mo ago

Higher placements fail with cats on shelves.

nancyg145d ago

Mounting height is only half the problem, the real issue is sensor range. I saw a video where a cat's jump set off a wide-angle sensor from across the room. @diana_jenkins65's high mount works because labs are big, but a cat's heat signature is smaller and moves differently. You need to check the detection pattern and maybe use a pet-immune model that ignores anything under a certain weight. Otherwise you are just guessing and will get more false alarms.