Hey all,
I’m looking for your ideas… I bought some new patio furniture (outdoor couch, chairs, ottomans) to go on our covered porch. Our old furniture had been used heavily by our cats who got fur all over it and our dog who chewed up the cushions. I’d rather this not be the case with our new stuff. They have a doggie door to go outside anytime they want, so keeping them off the patio is very difficult as I can’t watch outside all the time.
My initial plan was to use furniture covers, but the dog has already figured out she can just lay on top of the covers and has already chewed one of them up. At the moment, I have all of the cushions put away, but would prefer not to have to get them in and out every time I want to sit outside.
My question for you guys is whether anyone has dealt with anything like this through some kind of automation? If there’s some way that could detect if they are sitting on the furniture, maybe an alarm or something to scare them off? Manually disabling via the HA UI would be fine with the potential to add a physical button later. I’m mainly not sure the best way of detecting them accurately and without generating false positives. Would rather not have a siren go off at 2AM because the wind blew or something, hah. As mentioned, this is on a covered porch, so rain should not be a concern for the electronics.
If I’m way off-base with this plan, let me know… Or if there’s a simpler way to accomplish it. Any help is appreciated!