A First Look: Furbo Dog Camera Review

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Turn back the clocks over 10 years ago…a time when Linus was a young pup.  Back then I would sit in my office at work wondering what the heck Linus was doing at home.

If only I had a dog camera to monitor his every activity…was he chewing my newest pair of tennis shoes?  Was he pulling up the carpet?  Was he barking at the mailman?

FYI, research showed that Linus mainly slept on the couch waking up every couple of hours to stretch his legs…

Enter the Furbo Dog Camera!

Treat Tosser, HD WiFi Cam, and 2-Way Audio

Lets take a look at some of the specifications for the Furbo Dog Camera from Chewy.com:

Product Description

• Fun Treat Tossing: Toss a treat to your dog through the free Furbo iOS/Android app. Fill up to 30 pieces of your dog’s favorite snack and play a game of fetch from anywhere!
• HD Camera & Night Vision: Discover your pet’s secret life when you’re not at home. With 720p HD video streaming, a 120° wide-angle view and night vision, Furbo lets you see your entire room, day or night.
• Two Way Chat: Hear and comfort your dogs just like you are right there with them. Furbo has built-in microphone and speakers so you can talk and listen to your pets clearly.
• Barking Alert: Delivers push notifications to your smartphone when your dogs bark so you can soothe them in real time. Furbo has intelligent sensors that automatically detects barking.
• Internet connection and strong WiFi signal are required to set up Furbo. Depending on the size and texture of the treats, multiple treats may toss out at a time.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 4.7 x 8.9 inches ; 1.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds

Furbo Dog Camera Review

First check out our Furbo Dog Camera/Treat Dispenser Video Review:

I’m not going to lie to you.  We’ve been testing the Furbo Dog Camera for a few days now and it’s fun!  A lot of FUN!  Toss a treat, take a picture, talk to your dog…FUN, FUN, FUN!!!  So lets break it down and go over the pros and cons of the Furbo Dog Camera, Treat Dispenser, WiFi Camera, 2 Way Audio…is there anything this thing doesn’t do?

PROS

• The Design: One of the first things that jumped out at me was the design.  We live in a mid-century modern Eichler home and design is an important part of everything in our house from our Eichler inspired dog house to the dog bowls to a treat-launching dog camera.  From the glossy white finish to the wood cap on top we are very impressed with the Furbo design.
• The Setup: When I was dreaming of a dog camera to monitor Linus’ activities I was thinking about adding a webcam to my desktop, setting up a Yahoo Messenger account, and accessing video through the Messenger chat program.  While this was not brain surgery it also was not a simple task.  That being said it literally took me 5 minutes to set up my Furbo:
  1. Plugin Furbo using a USB cord
  2. Download Furbo App
  3. Connect to WiFi and you’re ready to go!
• The App: The app is easy to set up and super easy to use.
  1. Take a picture or video – This is cool we’ve already taken a few pics and videos of the pups.  I wish I had my Furbo when I had the litter of Golden Retriever puppies.
  2. Toss a treat – This is Raven and Bear’s favorite part.  Free treats!  Unfortunately, Stetson is usually too slow to get a treat. 🙁
  3. Listen to or speak to your dog – Right now it’s a work in progress as the dogs don’t always understand what’s going on when I use the speaker (sometimes I can get them to “sit” and “down”, but I can very easily see the Furbo as a training device for my service dog puppies.
• Night Vision: Late last night I turned all the lights off in the house to check out the night vision.  It was pretty cool!  It was very similar to what you see in the movies when the guys put on the night vision goggles.
• Barking Alert: The barking alert push notifications are nice to have just in case your dogs are barking at an unwanted stranger or even if they’re barking is becoming a nuisance to the neighbors.

CONS

• The Connection Is Unstable: This is by far my number one concern during my first look.
  • I’ve tested the Furbo from my iPhone 5s over my WiFi connection at home (the same WiFi the Furbo is setup on) and it works excellent.
  • I’ve also tested it using the Verizon LTE connection through my iPhone and I get the infamous “The Connection Is Unstable” message.  I get the same message when trying to connect from the WiFi at my local Starbucks, the library at the local community college, and the Barnes and Noble down the street.
  • When “the connection is unstable” the video is very choppy and nearly unusable.
  • I visited the Furbo FAQ page and found that upload speeds need to be at minimum of 0.8 Mbps to maintain the best video stream quality.  Ahhh…that is the likely culprit.  We use DishNet Satellite internet which is not exactly the fastest kid on the block.
  • After running several speed tests I noticed that upload speeds sometimes fall below the 0.8 Mbps speed minimum.  Fortunately, we’ll be upgrading to fiber in the coming months so hopefully, that will mean a more stable connection when connecting outside of the home.
• Optimal Treat Size: My guess is the Furbo is designed with an optimal treat size and shape in mind.  I loaded my Furbo with the Wellness Core kibble I feed my dogs as the treat size seemed like a good match for the Furbo.  However, when dispensing treats the Furbo launches anywhere from 0-4 kibble.  Honestly, I don’t mind as long as at least 1 kibble comes out of the dispenser, but it seems the size and shape sometimes get caught up in the dispenser.  If Furbo supplied an optimal treat size and shape (maybe even their own branded treats) I think we could expect a more consistent treat delivery.
• Treat Capacity: I put about half a cup of kibble into the Furbo which I think may have exceeded the 30 treat capacity.  However, I would love to have a larger capacity treat dispenser.

Amazon Customer Reviews Of The Furbo

Before purchasing any product I like to take a look at some of the reviews on Chewy.com and the Furbo Dog Camera is well-reviewed with an average of 5 out of 5 stars. Check out the customer reviews.

After reading through Amazon’s 5-star reviews here are the top 3 raves about the Furbo:

1. I love checking in on my dog: My Experience: While I’ve had some connectivity issues I can still see still images and I do get peace of mind seeing my dogs are doing well home alone.
2. Great Customer Support: My Experience: N/A. I haven’t contacted customer support yet.  The funny thing is poor customer support is common in the 1-star reviews.
3. Love the treat tossing: My Experience: It’s my new favorite dog toy so YES! I love the treat tossing and so do the puppies 🙂 

After reading the 1 and 2-star reviews here are 3 of the most common problems customers found with the Furbo and my experiences:

1. Connectivity Issues: My Experience: connecting the Furbo to home WiFi networks seemed to be a big problem amongst the unsatisfied customers.  This was a non-issue for me.  Furbo found our WiFi network I supplied the password and we were up and running.  However, I am having some problems with what I think is my upload speed.  This is something I’ll have to update on when we upgrade our internet connectivity.
2. Problems with Customer Support: My Experience: N/A. I haven’t contacted customer support yet.  Funny thing is great customer support is common in the 5 star reviews.
3. Product broke shortly after purchase: My Experience: we’ve only been using our Furbo for a few days now and we haven’t had any problems.

My Final Notes About The Furbo Dog Camera

• Get your dogs used to the Furbo first – The Furbo makes some unusual noises when delivering treats.  We have four dogs in our household and two of the four were cautious with all the unusual sounds.  My tip would be to introduce your dog slowly to the Furbo and make all the initial interactions as positive as possible.  Even the sound of my voice coming from the microphone initially startled the pups.  You just got your Furbo and I know you’re excited, but take it slow so you and your dog can get the most enjoyment out of your new treat-dispensing dog camera.
• Separation Anxiety –  Linus has some separation anxiety and I can see this as a possible tool to help alleviate some of his anxiety issues.  The bark detection feature can let me know that something might be wrong.  Allowing Linus to hear my voice as well as positively reinforce him with a few timely treats could help him throughout a long day at the homestead.
• Multi Dog Households –  Did I mention we have four dogs at home?  One out of the four dogs has some food aggression and because of that reason I have to be careful anytime I deliver treats to my dogs including with the Furbo.  Know your dogs and your household and make sure the delivery of any treats is safe for all your pets.
• Dog Training – It’s only been a few days, but through the Furbo microphone I was able to get Raven and Stetson to do both a “sit” and a “down”.  Hmmm…I wonder how else I could use my Furbo to train my dogs?

We love our Furbo and we’re going to look further into finding the perfect treats as well as work to solve our “connection is unstable” error message so we can get the most out of our Furbo.  It’s been a real “treat” reviewing the Furbo Dog Camera.  Sometimes I can’t wait to leave the house just so I can see what my dogs are doing and give them a treat for being good doggies. 🙂

For more information visit Furbo’s website and social media channels:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube

So what are you waiting for?  Check out the Furbo today!

Have you ever used a camera to monitor your dog’s daily activities?  How about a Furbo?  Tell us about your experiences with dog cameras in the comment section below.

This post is sponsored by TomoFun LLC. I am being compensated to help share the Furbo Dog Camera, but we only share information we feel is relevant to our readers.  TomoFun LLC is not responsible for the content of this article.

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