A Dog Can Be Your Best Friend When It Comes To Home Security

Burglar alarms are not the be-all and end-all of home security. There are plenty of other things you can install in your home that will help to stop an intruder from gaining entry – and many of them are very simple and cheap.

The important is to secure the potential points of entry. This means that doors must be made of strong, solid material (absolutely not plastic or glass), be accurately secured to their hinges and have tamper-resistant locks.

Ideally, you should have an extra deadbolt that you put on at night, made from very heavy-duty metal.

Windows should be made from toughened glass, preferably double-glazed, so that they are almost impossible to break. Although window locks are relatively uncommon, they help greatly with security, and you should consider installing them.

If your house has windows in a position where they can be easily and discreetly accessed from the street, such as basement windows, you should consider putting metal bars on them.

It is also essential for your garden to be protected, as far more intruders enter through the back of your house than the front. This means that your fences must be high and have some kind of anti-climbing measures (spikes or anti-climb paint can work well). If you don’t like fences, get big hedges as an alternative.

One more thing to think through is getting a dog remarkably effective against burglars, who don’t usually want to mess with dogs if they can avoid it. For this manner to be more effective, put up a ‘beware of the dog’ sign.

Smaller dogs are not so great for this as they are not commonly scary – something like a big German Shepherd works best, not only because of their size, but because of their strong guard characters that cause them to be intimidating to strangers.