Pet setting off alarm

Hi @jmeredith17,

While SimpliSafe Motion Sensors usually do a pretty good job of triggering only when people enter their view, false alarms can further be avoided by making some tweaks to the placement of the sensor. If you haven't already, you can head over to this page in our Help Center for some helpful tips regarding the installation of our Motion Sensors. With a small dog in the house, you may need to put the Motion Sensor closer to the ceiling so that it is further away from pets or even mount it upside down so that they would be out of its view. If you need further advice, feel free to contact our Support Team by email at Customer-Support@SimpliSafe.com or by phone at 1-800-297-1605.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

@jmeredith17  I have SS3 motion sensors in all of my first floor rooms (6) that do not go off when my son's dog comes for a visit and stays overnight.  She is a miniature daschund that assisted me in testing my SS3 system and pets.  Also, it is important you to know she weighs about 10 pounds.

How did it work out?

First, when she came the first time, I put all six motions on "secret alert" for home mode (all bedrooms are on the 2nd floor of the house, motions there too but only armed in away mode.)  All sensors were on high, and looking at my phone the first morning I knew 5 of the six would have alarmed.  4 nights later I had success with 2 repositioned motions and all now on medium sensitivity.  Still on secret alert, on day 10 one tripped. It was covering the laundry room. I put it on low and confirmed it would cover the back door and avoid the dog. After 3 more quiet nights, tada...done.  She has been at our house a dozen times since then and no issues.

If you have the patience, and your dog is small, it can work. Please post your outcome here if you get a chance.

Similar to method above, through secret alert testing we have an alarm free home with a 6 lb Chihuahua and a 45 lb pointer mix.  Keys for us were
-Make sure sensors are mounted properly as detailed in link posted above
-Medium sensitivity
-Not aimed at couch/chair the dog may jump on

One of the reasons I chose Simplisafe was their pet safe motion sensors. Safe up to 50lb. I installed latest motion sensor in the Guest bedroom at a height of 5' facing the door. The beam is directed over the bed towards the door. Set AWAY mode. After 20mins I received a call from Simplisafe Monitoring an alarm activated. Upon inspection it was the motion sensor in the Guest bedroom. Apparently, our 17lb dog had jumped on the bed setting off the alarm. According to the Timeline log the motion sensor triggered a glass breakage sensor on the floor below on the other side of the house. Oddly, there is a glass sensor in the same room as the motion sensor but it didn't trigger. Support didn't have a good answer for either. Suggested flipping the motion sensor so the test button is on the bottom. Technically, I should not have to do this because my dog is well below their documented pet weight limit. Why the glass sensor no where near the triggered motion sensor triggered is still a mystery. I say it is faulty.

I think Simplisafe should make a note in their literature that a motion sensor placed in bedrooms should be positioned 5' above the height of the bed and not the floor or mount the sensor upside down.

Hi @bvferragamo,

Is the Glassbreak Sensor that was triggered during the alarm at all near the Base Station or to an Extra Siren? This makes me wonder if perhaps the sound of the siren blaring may have triggered that Glassbreak Sensor.

Regarding the motion sensor being triggered, Captain11 is right that using the Secret Alert feature of our system is a great way to test out the installation of any Motion Sensors without having to worry about any false alarms. As we mentioned in a prior post, we have this page in our Help Center which includes a video regarding some additional steps that some pet owners may have to take.

@Captain11, while we already have a page dedicated to setting up the Motion Sensors in our Help Center, we'll look into adding some additional information about why we recommend setting the Motion Sensors up further away from smaller pets and lower but upside down for larger pets. This should help fill in the gaps for some customers and wondering which method of installation should be chosen.

SimpliSafe Social Team
SimpliSafe Home Security

@bvferragamo It is possible to use motions with dogs and not have issues, however, you do have to insure the proper configuration of them, including location, height, direction and sensitivity setting.  I have recommended and placed about 10 systems where the owners have dogs and cats that wander through most of their homes.

Suggest: before mounting sensors upside down, change all to secret alert only, and move sensitivity to low. (Switch is on the back). Leave it this way for several days, see if your dog trips any. If so, make note of which one. If none after 3 days, your done and reset to alarm.  If one, two or several do go off, try moving them to a different location in each room.

Here is the bottom line: I have a total of 11 motions, and in away mode, all are set to alarm on two floors and garage.  When my son's dog Roy visits, at around 20 pounds, he does not set off the sensors. All but two are now on medium and cover all of the rooms.  Yes, it did take several visits from Roy and 3 rooms to "reconfigure" but the entire system is now "Roy friendly". Please I don't have a 50 pound dog to test further. Good luck.

@Simplisafe Social Team  This has been a sensitive area for years; you may want to consider adding material to the help center on a SOP on how to configure a pet friendly system and add some additional disclosure on your "pet friendly up to 50 pound" marketing pitch. Will save a lot of calls, customer aggravation etc etc.

@Team S. I stand corrected and apologize for missing the pet video.  As you stated, it is there and offers great tips on the placementg of the sensors. As you also said, adding additional information will make it better.  Testing with "secret alert only" if you have the interactive plan and managing the sensitivity settings will also help pet owning customers.

Note that the motion sensors do not have a weight determination function.  They are looking for a "change in heat".  If your 5 pound pet is hot enough and close enough to the sensor, it will set it off.  You have to set up the sensors to deal with the habits of your pets..