Does anyone have a burglar alarm and a cat?

[iwouldgoouttonight]

Thinking of having a burglar alarm fitted and wondered how it works with the cat - won't she set it off? I've heard you can get ones if you have dogs where they only have sensors above a certain level, but obviously cats can climb anywhere. We don't really have a room we would want to lock her in overnight.

Thanks!

Having already been burgled four times it would be just my luck to be burgled by elves (or cats) next.

My cat sets the alarm off. On christmas day we forgot he was in and went out all afternoon and evening. The alarm was triggered and went off constantly.
Was very apologetic to the neighbours.

We inherited a house alarm, and then inherited a cat. We were able to change the sensors to ones that would only detect movement a certain distance away - just ask the company to explain the options.

It should help with the burglary problem - I think it is still the case that they won't generally bother with a house that has an alarm.

We had 5 cats, sadly only one now, we also have curtains that open and close by themselves dusk and dawn that had to be taken into account, but we used ADT and they have sorted it out with careful positioning of the sensors.

Thanks for all your help! We've got a couple of different companies coming round to give us quotes. I just wanted to check that its a reasonable request to ask for it to be installed so the cat won't set it off (don't want to be fobbed off with them telling us to put the cat out all night or something!)

Think it will help us feel more secure (although I do feel a bit like I'm locking the door after the horse has bolted!)

We have pet sensors and they only go off if they detect something over a certain mass, i.e. it's not how tall something is, but how big it is, so the cat can jump up where she wants and it's fine.

@LowLevelWhinging hi - picking this up waaaaay after the discussion ended but hopefully you see this. Which sensors do you have? Our alarm guy is saying he doesn't think they work as cats can jump, so would love a recommendation to use. Thanks!

The only time my cat has set off my burglar alarm it was 11.30pm and I was fast asleep. I had left a chair out too far and as she jumped up onto it she activated the sensor and ring-a-ding-a-ling!!! She hasn't activated the alarm before or since so I'm hoping it was just this chair being in the line of sight of the sensor.

I only started using the alarm after I was burgled in the night last month - I'd had it repaired two weeks earlier with a Part Set option (Downstairs only) which now gets used every night

consider using door and window opening sensors, and break-glass sensors, especially on patio doors.

Cats can climb or jump in front of movement detectors, but they can't open a locked door.

It is generally said that pet-proof PIRs are not reliably cat-proof.

In the old days, you could get pressure mats that you could put under the hall and stairs carpets to detect a person walking there. They may still be available.

False alarms annoy the neighbours, and they also mean your alarm will be ignored whenever it goes off, even in a real burglary.

We have, our alarm is set to only pick up a weight limit - I think its 40kg. Our cat still sets it off and hes 5kg!

What PigletJohn said. We have been told
we need sensors on windows and doors rather than movement sensors.

I was told by three alarm companies that weight specific movement sensors are a myth. Pet friendly movement sensors do exist but they work by not covering the lowest 60 or so of a room, so are useless if your cat jumps on things higher than that. We will have one of those on a landing where there is no furniture to jump on.

The alternative is to have window/door sensors in the kitchen and movement sensors elsewhere. But then you have to find the cats and shut them in the kitchen every time you go out.