Large dog motion sensors?

Devices & Integrations
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I’ve been reading loads of threads the past few days and I’m not having much luck. I have a roughly 80 lbs Akida in the house and I would like to get some motion sensors for automating some lighting. The stuff I’ve read seems to indicate that there are some pretty good and reliable options for dogs under 20 lbs, and some other options for dogs up to about 50 lbs. I also read something about placing a motion sensor upside-down at just the right height to do pretty well with larger dogs. Unfortunately, I’m still rather lost on how exactly to do this and which sensors would be best to even attempt this with.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this issue. Sorry if this has been resolved and I’m just missing the magical thread that covers this.

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we have an 80 lb lab mix and i’ve resolved to just not arming with motion where he is during the day. Only at night when he’s in our room. However, i did see this at Lowe’s the other day. It’s pricey, but says its good up to 100 lbs. Also uses zigbee HA1.2, so should be fine with SmartThings.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bosch-Wireless-Pet-Friendly-TriTech-Motion-Detector-90-Degree-Passive-infrared-Security-Motion-Detector-Works-with-Iris/1000449001

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Hmm… I wonder why the specs on Lowe’s website specifically say it doesn’t work with SmartThings?

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I have no experience with this, so since I’m talking out my arse, your mileage may vary, but since an 80 pound dog is basically indistinguishable from a (crawling smallish) person, seems to me the only option is to angle them to avoid crawling and/or short people. You could position them so that they “miss” near the floor. I assume that’s what the upside down thing is accomplishing, since they’re configured to see the floor but not the ceiling. You could also block part of the sensor. (This would [probably] only work with a PIR sensor, but active sensors are generally only used for security systems.)

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Probably because they aren’t on the official Works With Smartthings list. But Zigbee HA 1.2 certification is what all the certified motion detectors use.

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I think I’ll have to give this Bosch sensor a shot. I would definitely like to setup some lighting automation based on motion sensors but the puppy makes that difficult with most sensors.

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Let me know how it goes!

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Will do but probably going to be a while before I get around to it.

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I’m coming in late here, but I just wanted to mention that there have been a couple of community members who took a regular smartthings – compatible motion sensor, put a small tube over the lens to make the detection field very narrow, and then mounted it at shoulder height for an adult so it catches them just as they walk through the door frame into the room.

@Mike_Maxwell Did a lot with these, and had very good success. He would put the entire thing behind a plate in the wall just for aesthetic reasons, but in the following thread you can see the step-by-step project with the tube attached to just a regular motion sensor as he tests for the right location.

image

The trick is getting just the right height to catch the people that you want to catch without catching the dog. And of course if the dog jumps up in the air at just the right spot, it will also trigger it. So It can take some trial and error to get it right. But if you want to catch people walking through a doorway, and everybody in the house is taller than the dog, you can usually make it work. :sunglasses::dog:

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