[masraum]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I believe that burglars list a dog as the #1 theft deterrent.

An honest question, does a basic alarm system really detect most typical break ins? To give further detail, our home has a system installed by a previous owner that has motion sensors and door/window open sensors. My doors have deadbolts, my windows are locked, and I wouldn't arm the motion sensors while I was in the house. So how does it help? I'm assuming that most burglars will simply break a window or kick in a door, which will wake me up just as fast. Am I wrong in my assumptions?

Assuming that you're home....

Probably. My house is a 2-story. It's possible that someone could break a window downstairs without waking us up (unlikely but possible) except that we have 2 dogs that would raise hell if a window was broken.

If a door was opened, you'd probably hear. My house was robbed when I was about 12 or 13. They didn't kick in the door, they used a pry bar to pry the door open. That's probably not as loud as kicking the door in, but still, probably not exactly quiet.