Furbo 360° Dog Camera Review

Our test dogs loved the Furbo 360°’s treat toss, and the camera captured some adorable footage.
Best pet camera
Furbo 360° Dog Camera
  • pro
    High-quality video and sound
  • pro
    Treat tossing
  • pro
    Bark alerts
Cathy Habas
Aug 19, 2022
Icon Time To Read10 min read

SafeWise experts have years of firsthand experience testing the products we recommend. Learn how we test and review. We may earn money when you buy through our links.

I had way too much fun testing the Furbo 360° Dog Camera thanks to its treat-tossing feature. My two senior husky mixes—Sammy and Emerson—caught on to the game instantly, and the motion and noise didn’t send my cats into a panic. A total win-win! 

I also gained some insight into what my pets do when alone (a lot of snoozin’) and how much they bark when I’m not there to hush them (thankfully not too much). Plus, I got tons of adorable perky-ear screenshots to add to my collection and instant peace when I worried about them during a thunderstorm.   

The Furbo was easy to set up and has surprisingly good camera quality with just a slight lag at times. I’ll walk you through the free and premium features so you can decide if it’s the best pet camera for your dog too.

pro
Pros
pro Treat-tossing design
pro Up to 1080p video quality
pro Excellent audio quality
pro Virtually silent panning
pro Free screenshot and clip downloads
pro Free bark alerts
con
Cons
con Video sometimes lags
con No privacy shutter
con Placement limitations
con Short (24 hr.) cloud storage
con No vertical tilt

Compare Furbo pricing and plans

Plan
Price
Cloud recording
Alerts
Camera scheduling
Connection alert
Warranty
Learn More
Free plan
Icon No  LightNo
Barking
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightNo
30 days
Furbo Dog Nanny
Icon Yes  LightYes
Barking, howling, crying, selfie, person, activity, alarms
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Lifetime

Info current as of post date. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

What's in the box

Furbo dog camera next to box and accessories

Image credit: Cathy Habas, SafeWise

  • Furbo 360° Dog Camera
  • 6-foot USB-C cable
  • Power adapter 
  • Quick start guide

Furbo 360° Dog Camera setup

Setting up the Furbo 360° Dog Camera couldn’t be easier. You plug it into an outlet and wait for a blinking light to appear at the base, which doesn’t take long. Meanwhile, you need to download the free Furbo smartphone app and create an account. 

Once you’ve signed in, the app will automatically walk you through the connection process. Some of the steps include turning on your phone’s Bluetooth signal and entering your Wi-Fi password. 

I always hold my breath when a product has to connect to my Wi-Fi. A few smart home devices never get past this stage of testing. But the Furbo did just fine and connected after a few seconds.

Proper placement of the Furbo camera

Here’s one of my few complaints about the Furbo: it has to be placed on a table that’s within about 15 feet of your internet router and, of course, within about 6 feet of an outlet. For me, that meant I could only put it in the living room.

Fortunately, that’s exactly where my couch potatoes hang out, so it wasn’t a big deal. But if I wanted to make sure they weren’t getting into trouble elsewhere in the house, I’d have to move my router and cross my fingers that an internet cable existed nearby.

Treat-tossing works well

Image: Cathy Habas, SafeWise

The treat-tossing feature makes the Furbo so much fun. The bamboo top comes off and reveals a treat reservoir. Furbo recommends using hard, round treats for best results. I experimented with cereal, dog kibble, and cat kibble. 

The cereal seemed to launch one piece at a time, but both kibbles sprayed out in clusters, so they didn’t last as long. It didn’t matter to my dogs—they were just as thrilled to get pelleted by a Lucky Charm as they were to be showered in kibble. 

In the settings menu, you can tell the Furbo that you’ve loaded small treats vs. large treats to avoid that spray effect.

Introducing your dog to the treat toss

You need to do a little training with your dog to help them understand the treat-tossing game, but Furbo gives you instructions and resources to make this easy. You start by letting your dogs watch you load the treats into the Furbo, and then you feed them a couple of treats by hand near the Furbo. Finally, you toss the treats on the ground while standing next to the Furbo.

When your dog can successfully find the treats you tossed, you can launch one from the Furbo. Just open the app, tap the camera view, and then tap the cookie icon in the center of the screen.

The Furbo will make a squeaky toy sound and then fire out a treat. Soon, your dog will start to associate the squeaky sound with an impending treat launch and will come to the Furbo. This makes it easier to call your dog to the camera when you want to make sure they’re okay. Alternatively, you can replace the squeaky sound with your own 6-second recording. 

How it worked during testing

Image: Cathy Habas, SafeWise

I followed the introduction instructions with Sammy and Emerson, and they understood without a hitch. In fact, Emerson understood a little too well and wound up staring at the Furbo for several minutes, begging for more treats. (He gave up quickly, but maybe this isn’t a great gadget for the obsessive types.)

I thought it was funny that the treats—especially the lightweight cereal—whizzed right over the dogs’ heads sometimes. But this worked out great since Emerson would hog the treats that fell short and Sammy could grab the treats that flew into the middle of the room. 

Both seemed to understand that something delicious had fallen on the floor, and they were more than willing to sniff it out. Then again, this isn’t a new concept for them—they’ve had years of practice as my de facto kitchen clean-up crew. 

Light Bulb
Dealing with treat jams

The treats are launched by a flexible paddle wheel. When the treats get jammed, it’s easy to manually spin the paddles and get things moving. There’s no alert or status light that tells you the treats are stuck, though.

Barking alerts and two-way audio

If the Furbo hears your dog barking, it sends you a push notification so you can check the camera. I can’t say whether my dogs ever barked and the Furbo didn’t catch it, but every time I got a barking alert, my dogs were truly barking. So far, this feature seems accurate.

To fuss at your barking dogs from afar, all you have to do is tap the microphone icon in the bottom right corner. I was skeptical that this would work since neither of my dogs seems to recognize my voice over FaceTime. 

But, it did the trick. I said, “Emerson!” and he whipped around to look for me. I’m not sure if he understood his name or just reacted to the noise, but he did stop barking and moved away from the window. 

Light Bulb
Adjust barking sensitivity or turn it off

In the Furbo app settings, you can turn the barking alert feature off or adjust how much noise triggers the alert. If your dog tends to bark under their breath, set the sensitivity to “High.” If your dog’s motto is, “Bark first, ask questions later,” set it to “Low.” 

The Furbo’s audio quality is good—no alien-esque garbles. I went to the other end of the house with the app while my partner stayed in the living room with the Furbo. We could easily carry on a conversation. And when I recorded a custom “treat alert” message, it came through clearly.

Good (but not great) camera quality

This Furbo camera defaults to 720p after setup, which seemed clear enough. If you want better image quality, you can change it to 1080p in the settings menu. Or, if you have a weak internet connection, you can go down to 360p. 

Honestly, I couldn’t really tell the difference between the camera quality settings. In theory, 360p should’ve looked horrible. But it got the job done. And in some of my test screenshots and recordings, 720p looked better than 1080p. Go figure.

Images: Cathy Habas, SafeWise

Bottom line—the quality is good, even with night vision. You won’t be able to count the whiskers on your dog’s snout, but you’ll see what they’re up to day or night without thinking, “I paid over $200 for this?”

Pans and zooms, doesn’t tilt

The Furbo 360° Dog Camera pans left and right to give you a full view of the room, but it doesn’t tilt up and down. If the dogs got really close to it, I could see only their ears.

The camera also has 4x digital zoom capabilities. Just pinch the screen to get a closer look.

Automatic dog tracking

The Furbo can also lock on to your dog and follow their movement so that they stay in frame. It's more useful if you're paying for Furbo Dog Nanny, which automatically records clips for you when your dog walks into view. I wasn’t a fan of this feature in live mode since it lagged slightly and kind of made me dizzy. I chose to disable it in the settings.

Save clips and screenshots for free

I was pleasantly surprised that Furbo lets you save screenshots and 1-minute recordings for free. Just tap the camera or video icons on the screen when your pet does something cute. The photo or video saves to your camera’s usual photo album. (Don’t forget to allow the Furbo app to access all photos.)

Notepad
Dog profiles

You can set up a profile for each of your dogs, but we’re not sure why. The alerts were never personalized, for example. Maybe Furbo will use profiles more in the future.

No privacy shutter

I’d like to see a privacy shutter in the next iteration of the Furbo 360° Dog Camera. You can turn off the camera in the app, but that also means you won’t get any alerts.

It’s just a little awkward to share camera apps with other people while not having the ability to physically block the camera lens. At least the Furbo’s status light comes on when the live feed is active so you know someone’s watching. 

That said, it’s easy enough to drape a towel over the camera since the Furbo is meant to be kept in an easy-to-reach location for treat refills.

Furbo Dog Nanny

Dog Nanny is Furbo’s premium subscription. It costs $6.99 a month and unlocks some extra functionality:

Screenshot: Cathy Habas, SafeWise

  • Advanced bark alerts—notifies you when your dog is barking continuously for more than 1 minute or howling, crying, or whining.
  • Person alerts—lets you know when a person walks into view
  • Selfie alerts—records a photo of your dog’s face and sends it to you
  • Emergency alerts—sends you a notification when a smoke alarm, carbon monoxide alarm, water leak sensor, etc. goes off in your home
  • Cloud recording—records and stores 15-second clips on the cloud for 24 hours when the Furbo detects motion
  • Doggie diary—prepares a 60-second, fast-forward compilation of the best clips recorded between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
  • Camera schedule—set limited hours for the camera to be active
  • Connection alerts—lets you know if the Furbo is disconnected from Wi-Fi or its power supply

You can get a slight discount if you pay for 1 or 2 years of Furbo Dog Nanny upfront, and each Dog Nanny account works with up to four Furbo cameras.

Bell
New Furbo alerts

Shortly after I wrote this review, Furbo launched a ton of new alerts through Dog Nanny: chewing, licking, vomiting, and pottying.  

Here’s what happened during testing

I signed up for the free trial of Furbo Dog Nanny to see if those extra alerts were accurate. Sometimes it mistook me for a dog instead of a person, and the activity alerts rolled in constantly. But it was fun to see the automatically-recorded clips. (I think everything my dogs do is cute!) You can also provide feedback about what your dog was doing in each clip to help Furbo’s AI engine categorize the clips.

I was a little disappointed to see that clips are stored on the cloud for just 24 hours. Make sure you download any keepers to your phone on a regular basis.

Furbo 360° Dog Camera vs. other pet cameras

We consider the Furbo 360° Dog Camera the champion of all pet cameras. It gives you plenty of functionality for free, and the upgraded perks are worth it. But it’s not the only pet cam on the market. Here are some of the major differences between the Furbo 360° Dog Camera and its competitors:

  • The Furbo’s cloud storage lasts 24 hours, whereas the Petcube Bites 2 stores clips for 90 days.
  • There’s no local storage option with the Furbo. Try the Eufy Pet Camera instead if that’s a deal-breaker. You’ll sacrifice a little bit of zoom and the Alexa skill, but it’s a very similar product. 
  • The Furbo has to sit on a table, whereas the Petcube Bites 2 can mount on a wall. Or, try the Skymee Owl Robot, which you can drive around the house.
  • The Nooie Dog Camera costs significantly less than the Furbo and has vertical tilt capabilities. Because it alerts you to any noise and doesn’t toss treats, it may be better for cats or reserved dogs.

From an aesthetic perspective, the Furbo 360° Dog Camera is definitely the prettiest of the bunch thanks to its wooden top and sleek hourglass shape. It doesn’t look awkward or cheap, allowing it to blend into the décor.

How Furbo compares to other pet cameras

Product
Best for
Price
Treat tossing
Bark alert
Video storage
Camera capabilities
Learn More
Best overall
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Cloud, 24 hoursPan and zoom
Best wall mount
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
Cloud, 90 daysZoom
Best for budgets
Icon No  LightNo
Icon No  LightGeneral sound detection only
Local or cloud (costs extra)Pan, tilt, zoom
Best for local storage
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
LocalPan and zoom
Best for active dogs
Icon Yes  LightYes
Icon Yes  LightYes
LocalMoves around the house

*Amazon.com price as of post date. Read full disclaimer

Final word

The Furbo 360° Dog Camera is a high-quality pet camera. It goes above and beyond a basic indoor surveillance camera with some excellent dog-specific features, including treat tossing and bark alerts. It was a big hit with my dogs, even though they’re on the sleepy side. 

Plus, I love that the Furbo 360° is good enough to be an indoor security camera in its own right. It’s worth the money and would make a great gift for pet parents.

Furbo 360° Dog Camera FAQ

The Furbo Dog Camera (also called the Furbo 2 or Furbo 2.5) is older, taller, and heavier than the Furbo 360°. But the biggest difference is that it’s a stationary camera. 

The Furbo 360°’s audio quality, night vision, and treat-tossing mechanism all perform better than the Furbo 2.

Yes, you can connect the Furbo with Amazon Alexa to unlock some voice-activated commands. After downloading the Furbo Alexa Skill from the Alexa app, you can integrate the Furbo into your Alexa routines or say, “Alexa, tell Furbo to toss a treat,” for on-the-go rewards. 

I tried this Alexa Skill during testing, and it worked perfectly every time. It was faster to give the Alexa voice command than to open up the Furbo app to toss a treat.

If you have an Echo Show, you can also say, “Alexa, show me Furbo” to display the video feed.

The Furbo Dog Nanny subscription is available in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, France, and Germany. The device itself should work worldwide, but you may need a plug adapter.

Furbo uses 2048-bit RSA key encryption to keep your data secure. Furbo also offers two-factor authentication, but it’s not part of the default account setup process. Under Menu, tap Account and then Two-Step Verification to get started.

You can take other security measures to improve the privacy of your Furbo and other smart home devices, such as using a unique, strong password for the Furbo app and improving your Wi-Fi security

Probably not. Although the Furbo camera’s hourglass shape is meant to be difficult to tip over and the manufacturers claim it’s chew-proof,1 some dogs will certainly rise to the challenge and prove them wrong. 

You might be able to put the Furbo up high to keep it safe, but you’ll lose some visibility because the camera doesn’t tilt vertically. Ideally, it should be just 3 feet off the ground.

Make sure you haven’t toggled off the camera from the app. If you see a drawing of the Furbo with a lock symbol next to it, the camera’s off and you won’t get any alerts.

If that didn’t do the trick, go into the camera settings menu and tap Barking Alerts. Make sure the barking alert feature is toggled on. If it is, try dragging the bark sensitivity bar to “high.”

Finally, consider whether your dog is howling, whining, or crying rather than barking. Without the Furbo Dog Nanny subscription, you won’t get alerts when your dog makes those other sounds. 

How we reviewed the Furbo 360° Dog Camera

Screenshot: Cathy Habas, SafeWise

Our review of the Furbo 360° Dog Camera is based on our hands-on testing experience. We tested the free and premium features on the Furbo Dog Camera, including all setting options, for one week. Our helpers included two laid-back older dogs.

Learn more about how we test products on the Safewise methodology page.

Related articles on SafeWise


Sources

  1. Furbo, “Durable Dog Camera.” Accessed July 6, 2022.
Disclaimers

*Product prices and availability are accurate as of post date and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product. Safewise.com utilizes paid Amazon links.

Certain content that appears on this site comes from Amazon. This content is provided “as is” and is subject to change or removal at any time.

Cathy Habas
Written by
Cathy Habas
With over eight years of experience as a content writer, Cathy has a knack for untangling complex information. Her natural curiosity and ability to empathize help Cathy offer insightful, friendly advice. She believes in empowering readers who may not feel confident about a purchase, project, or topic. Cathy earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Indiana University Southeast and began her professional writing career immediately after graduation. She is a certified Safe Sleep Ambassador and has contributed to sites like Safety.com, Reviews.com, Hunker, and Thumbtack. Cathy’s pride and joy is her Appaloosa “Chacos.” She also likes to crochet while watching stand-up comedy specials on Netflix.

Recent Articles

photo of Canadian house
The Best Home Security Systems in Canada
Find the best home alarm system to protect your house. We looked at price, features,...
medical alert products on an illustrated background
Best Medical Alert Systems
See which medical alert system is the best to keep you and your loved one...
woman adjusting thermostat in bright home
Best Home Security Systems
After thousands of hours of tests and research, we picked Vivint and SimpliSafe as the...
Man and woman couple wife husband set up surveillance security camera
Best Apartment Security Systems
These renter-friendly apartment security systems help keep you safe and require less commitment than your...