Dog

by Elizabeth Wordsmith

Created on: February 19, 2010

Dogs are a better choice for an alarm system if one has to decide between one and the other.  Among the many reasons dogs get my vote are:

1.  Dogs are not affected by power outages or some sneaky burglar who has learned how to disable the system.

 2.  Dogs will alert you to a possible threat even before the person gets to the front door giving you time to call 911 or make a plan of escape.

3.  Burglars don’t know if your dog is a vicious attack dog or a fuzzy ball that will pounce on him with happiness to see someone.  Sometimes a dog barking is the only deterrent necessary to scare someone away.

 4.  You don’t have to pay a monthly service fee for a dog or worry about whether or not you turned on the alarm or if the security code is still secure.

 5.  Anyone who has had an alarm system knows that it’s a hassle if people are coming in and going out frequently.  Often people only use them when everyone has gone to bed for the night or if they are all gone for the day.  You don’t have to turn a dog on or off.  They also seem to know instinctively who belongs in the house and who doesn’t.

 6.  If your dog alarm goes off, if may be an annoyance to your neighbors.  But if your security alarm goes off frequently because you failed to turn it off when you and family members were coming and going, you might be faced with some hefty fines for inconveniences to the police department.

 7.  When people get used to their alarm being set off by family members, they tend to not take it seriously when it goes off during a break-in.  But when dogs start barking, you know something is wrong and will go looking for the problem.  Dogs don’t stop barking until the problem has been taken care of either.  But you could disarm your alarm system when there is still a danger lurking about.

 8.  Since dogs generally bark when you come home, too, you’ll know if something is wrong when you come home and the house is quiet.

9.  A dog’s barking generally sets the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood to barking, too.  I imagine that burglars would want to avoid setting off this type of neighborhood watch system.  When the whole neighborhood is awakened by such noise and everyone all goes in search of the problem, it makes it fairly difficult for someone to not notice when something is awry.

 10.  Most dogs are fearless. They won’t back down even when their own safety is in jeopardy.  Most of them can do some damage to a burglar before the burglar can do anything to the dog.

 11.  Dogs are portable.  If you are going on a trip, many hotels allow dogs.  They are great to take along on a camping trip.  The one main thing you must remember, though, is to never ever leave your dog in the car alone.

 12. Dogs bring us so much joy and fun besides being good protectors.  Alarm systems don’t greet you with joy whenever you come home or snuggle up with you on the sofa when you are having a bad day.  They don’t play with the kids and get you out of the house to do some walking.  Dogs provide many services as opposed to the one function of an alarm system.

 13.  Besides protecting their owners against burglars, dogs also can alert home owners to other problems such as fire.  Their sense of smell is keen and they can be trained to alert the homeowner to various problems that would be undetectable by a human.

 14.  Dogs age, but they are never obsolete.  Security systems deteriorate.  Sometimes the companies go out of business.  They are prone to human error while dogs are not.

 If I ever had the disturbing experience of meeting face to face with a burglar, you can bet that I’d rather have a dog by my side snarling and ready to lunge more than an irritating alarm system blaring away. 

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth Wordsmith.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.