Poor dogs! I have been told by more than one police officer that a dog is a better deterrent than an alarm. It doesn't matter what size the dog is, as long as it makes its presence known by barking or being visible. Thieves do not want to deal with a dog, and tend to move on to a home without one.

Several years ago I came home to find a police car in our driveway. I had forgotten to lock the front door and somebody we knew had come by, knocked, opened the door and set off the alarm and walked away without letting us know. (We figured that out afterwards) Our dog is definitely not a watch dog. He thinks anybody coming to the house is his best buddy. The loud alarm must have gotten him so riled up that the cop decided not even to enter the house.He said that with the dog we had we wouldn't have to worry about somebody breaking in.
We don't have the alarm anymore.

Hooking up different sensors to alarms is not difficult, so nobody should have to suffer through alarm systems not suited to their predicament. There are greenhouse alarms, and not terribly expensive what can telephone another number and forward on an alert. It's typically used for power failure or heater failures, but there isn't any reason it could not be hooked up to an infra-red beam for intruders, or vibration sensors on doors or windows. If you had it programmed to call into your work number or cell, you can easily call a neighbour to check, or directly phone the police yourselves.

Yes, dogs can be deterrents, but. My children's home was burgled in broad daylight some years back. They had their large dog with them, but a smaller one (still a fifty-sixty pounder) in the house. The thief let himself in through their front window in view of the street. Took what he wanted, and the dog probably made him a cup of coffee and served him appetizers. Some dogs are so well socialised, they wouldn't deter an intruder. Worked awhile as a police officer, and I have seen guard dogs stolen along with the other goods.

two of my past dogs were freaked out by the low battery chirp on the smoke detectors. i always kept fresh batteries in them but they were also hard-wired to the electrical system. every time we lost power, the dang things would chirp. poor dogs would get frantic, immediately. i finally disconnected all of them and installed simple battery-operated smoke/carbon monoxide detectors. i put fresh batteries in every 3 months and i never have to worry about them chirping when the power comes back on after being out.

We have a whole home alarm system and I will not be without it again. In addition to security, it is linked to our smoke alarms so will call the company should there be a fire; it has a temperature sensor so if pipes are in danger of freezing when we are out of town, we will be notified; and it has water detectors in the basement so if a sump pump fails or we have water for other reasons we will be notified.

My dogs are not my security system. They may bark but anyone with any remedial knowledge of dog language will know that they are barking from excitement and are gently and loving. My dogs cannot call if the house is on fire or flooding.

The alarm has gone off multiple times in the presence of my dogs. Their response is a mildly cocked head before they go back to sleep.