Furbo Dog Camera: Read this review before you buy

Thinking about buying a Furbo Dog Camera? This information might steer you in the right direction and help you avoid buying something with less features or something else that is unsuitable.

There are many cameras available depending on your needs and budget. So if you’re a dog parent wanting to check in on your dog while they are home alone you’re definitely going to need a good reliable dog camera.

If you want to read a review from a dog family that has owned this for an extended period of time and wants to know how we use it, this article is for you.

The Furbo dog treat dispensing camera is designed for dogs: See, toss treats and get barking and activity alerts. And it is designed for BOTH dog parents to monitor the secret life of their dogs.   I always feel guilty leaving them home alone.  Furbo to the rescue!

Wide Angle (160 degrees) HD 1080 Quality connects via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

Let’s get the view specifications out of the way. I LOVE how wide of an angle it has. I can see the room clearly with the 160 degree wide angle view.

I can life stream and monitor what my dogs are doing at any given time day or night.

I love that I can zoom in as well.

The Furbo comes with three settings for video quality: 1080p, 720p and 360p. The default setting is at 720p. You can adjust these levels in your settings in the phone app.

One thing to note is that you cannot pan. That said – it pretty much captures everything I need to see in the room and front door hallway so I don’t miss this capability.

Here’s a video of my two of which one is happily on top of the coffee table knowing full well she’s not allowed up there.  This was recorded at 720p before I changed the settings to 1080p.

Ability to record your voice

Furbo comes with a pre-recorded greeting right before you dispense treats. In the settings you can record your own greeting. Mine says: “Maggie … Orbit … I’ve got a treat for you”. This brings them from all corners of the house.

You can also change the level of this announcement depending on the size of your house. I have ours set to medium and we find it even calls them in from the yard.

Practically – the application of this is I get an alert that they are barking. I turn on my Furbo camera but I don’t see them in the room that it’s placed in. I can dispense treats and it’s loud enough that it will catch their attention and bring them to the room.

The Furbo has three different types of alerts

Other security cameras will only detect motion and sound. Furbo has “Smart Dog Recognition Technology” that notifies you of dog related events and even records them for you to watch later.

These real time smart alerts include:

Dog Activity Alerts: Furbo alerts you to when you dog is moving. You get a notification on your phone and for those with Apple iWatches – it alerts you on your watch also.

Person Alert: Furbo can tell when a person has entered the room and in view. For those with dog walkers that come into the house to pick up your dog – this is a fantastic feature.

Dog Selfie Alert: Furbo can detect when your dog is facing the camera. For this to work the Furbo has to be pretty close to the dog’s level. For example when I place the Furbo on top of the speaker (knee high) it easily sends me selfie alerts but when I place the Furbo shoulder high on top of the speaker it won’t send me selfie alerts. For context I have two small Boston Terriers who are about knee high.

One thing to keep in mind I the barking alerts are part of the basic Furbo Dog Camera while the Dog Activity, Selfie and Person alerts only come with the Furbo Dog Nanny subscription. Each Furbo comes with a free 90 day plan and you can elect to renew or just keep it with the basic functions.

Adjustable Barking Alerts

I love being able to adjust the sensitivity of the barking sensor. We live in a fairly quiet neighborhood so ours is set to a medium level. It will even pick up their barking when the Furbo is inside the front of the house in the living room while they are barking in the back yard.

I tested it at the highest setting and it actually was too sensitive and picked up our neighbors dog.

Furbo Treat Camera Dispense Treats or Kibble

You can fill the Furbo with round treats or kibble. Round shaped treats with a diameter around 0.4 inches works best.

We have ours filled with kibble so that the Furbo supplements their daily food intake. If I know we’re going to be gone a long time I’ll feed them less breakfast or dinner and toss their kibble while we’re out.

It also has quite a slinger and treats are dispensed up to six feet away.

Works with Alexa

For Furbo owners that also have an Alexa you can  enable a feature to control your Furbo by speaking to Alexa. And enable that feature via this Amazon link.

and watch a video example of that here on Furbo’s YouTube.

2 – way chat feature

One of the fun features is the ability to have a 2 – way chat. If my dog is barking or if I just want to talk to my dog I can press a little icon to enable this feature.

Ability to load the app onto 2 phones

I along with my boyfriend loaded the app onto our phones. He loves to check in on the girls as much as I do.

Now I do work from home so I’m home almost all day barring errands and work outs.

So it’s funny to me when he dispenses treats I end up coming to the camera to wave him hello and because it has a two way chat we’re able to hold a conversation. It does have a small delay though similar to you would experience in a walkie talkie but once you get used to it, it’s not a huge deal.

Set up under three minutes

I’m not the technical person in the family. Regardless of my limited skills I was able to set up the Furbo in three steps in under three minutes. Once it was set up my boyfriend was able to connect his phone via the Furbo App as well.

We both have Apple X phones but we understand that the Furbo also connects with android users.

Furbo has indicator lights

Furbo has this sleek light at the base.
The color of light will change based on different conditions

• White light: When Furbo is plugged into the power for the first time
• Green light: When you can first set up your Furbo
• Purple light: When Furbo is not connected to the Wi-Fi network
• Yellow light: When Furbo is connected to the Wi-Fi network
• Blue light: When Furbo is being used (logged on to the app)

Dogs can see the color yellow and blue which means that your dog can tell whether you are using Furbo or not when he/she sees the signal light on Furbo!

The App allows you to teach it what it is seeing

Recently I noticed a new functionality when reviewing the cloud recordings for the day.

I am able to replay the video and under it I am able to communicate back if my dog was eating, coughing, vomiting, talking a selfie, choking, chewing or if there was no dog or to state some other reason.

Daily Dog Diary

Another feature available to Furbo Nanny Subscribers is that Furbo creates a time lapse of the top activity highlights that it records.

It will send you a notification around your dinner hour giving you the opportunity to view a 60 second video of what it captured that day.

It’s a fun feature and would be great for puppy owners or senior dog owners. We have gone back and forth on this. We enjoyed our free 90 day trial and opted not to renew it.

While it was gone … I missed the ability to view the daily dog diary.

I’m currently back on the plan and it’s nice to have. The cost is currently $6.99 per month or $69 for the year.

You can view the plan on Furbo’s site: FDN subscription cost – Furbo Dog Camera

The cost basically covers your cloud storage for all the daily videos Furbo stores of your dog being active as well as the daily dog diary.  All alerts and doggy diaries are stored for seven days.  You can view it, download it, send and share it with others.

If you opt not to renew your subscription you will still have the live cam and barking alerts sent to your phone and smart watch.

Sleek Packaging

Your Furbo will come in a box that is at the same level as apple products. It’s sleek and sturdy. I opted to keep it because of some unknown reason (it was pretty) and I actually found use for it when we traveled to visit family.

It’s our tradition to spend the holidays with our family members but part of that means we will be leaving the dogs at their home while we have a dinner or lunch out.

I brought it with me on a recent trip and set it up so we could toss the dogs some treats while we were out to a family lunch.

Gorgeous Design

We’ve moved the Furbo around to different rooms until we finally decided on it’s resting spot.

One thing about the design is that it’s simply gorgeous. It makes a statement wherever you place it. Visitors who have never seen it before will ask what it is.

And it fits in on the mantle, on your counter top or even next to the your TV or Stereo electronics. I like that it’s white because it stands out.

The Treat Dispensing Sound Programs Your Dog To Other Tech Toys

One thing the Furbo does is it makes a sound just as it’s about to toss the treats. It’s a digital crank sound. And the side benefit is that it got one of my dogs to absolutely love that sound.

We have another toy that tosses balls. Initially she was scared of the ball coming out of this machine but since they make the same sound, she’s as crazy about that toy as she is about her Furbo.

DISCLOSURE:  Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you click on a product link, I may receive compensation.  This compensation comes at no additional cost to you, and as always I only recommend products I have tried and trust.

Maggielovesorbit, Ilovebostons  is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Where You Can Buy The Furbo

You can buy it direct: via our link

Or via Amazon.

Have I Ever Had Any Challenges with the Furbo?

The Furbo has a four star rating on Amazon (currently 3,061 reviews)

In reviewing the negative reviews I noticed it was mainly due to connectivity.

We have never had any issues with our Furbo or with the Furbo App. Context wise we also have the highest level WiFi you can get and I’m guessing that we don’t have issues because our WiFi at home is crazy fast.

Will The Furbo Stop Your Dog From Barking?

No. But it will give them something to do after. And it will give you the ability to talk to your dog to bring them to the Furbo.

Even though I work from home my office is in the back room.

One of my dogs, Orbit loves to watch the neighborhood pass by from the top of the sofa.

I can monitor her via the app and when she barks I call her to her place – a bed in the office where she can sit calmly to receive treats.

Is the Furbo Good For Separation Anxiety?

A dog behaviorist should be consulted if your dog has major separation anxiety.

The way I use it is while I have a key in the door on my way out I will toss treats.

This way my two dogs associate my departure with positive experiences (food).

And then while I am away I will log in to watch them and toss more treats.

To tell you the truth I don’t know if my dogs have separation anxiety but it certainly helps MY own guilt for leaving them and it helps me as the dog owner with my own separation anxiety.

In Summary

After owning the Furbo for over half a year we can happily report that we love our treat dispensing dog camera.

Even though I work from home I can watch what my dogs are doing if they are at the front part of the house where the Furbo is located.

I love being able to toss them treats when I leave for yoga or grocery. And my boyfriends loves to check in on the girls and toss them treats while he is in the office.

Most times we take the girls with us when we go out but for the rare occasions when they are left home alone it gives us peace of mind that we can monitor their activities while we are away.

I often share videos from our Furbo in our Instagram Stories.  If you ever want to watch it in action visit us on our Instagram @maggielovesorbit 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello my name is Hannah and I dance with my dogs.  A self proclaimed Boston Terrier addict, (aka breed advocate) I started this blog because there isn’t enough space to write on our Instagram.  Maggie is my socially awkward one; which I find highly relatable because I am completely out of place in large groups myself.  And Orbit is my sensitive flower.  Blow on her skin wrong (ok I might be exaggerating) and she breaks out in a rash.

You won’t read about cats here… but you will get a fairly large dosage of articles dedicated to the Boston Terrier.    Read more about us.