The Best Camera to Keep an Eye on Your Dog

Want the short answer? The best camera to keep an eye on your dog is the Wyze Cam v4 for indoor nappers, and the Wyze Battery Cam Pro (paired with a solar panel) for backyard patrollers. Why? Because both offer crystal-clear video and local storage right out of the box, so you don't have to pay a monthly subscription just to watch your golden retriever sleep.

Now, for the long answer.

A dog is not a cat. 

That probably seems obvious, but it has real implications when choosing a camera. A cat prowls. A cat plots. A cat is an agent of chaos. She can jump anywhere. She can climb anything. Monitoring the behavior of a cat is an active, ongoing act of futility.

A dog? Well, most of the time a dog is asleep. Much like a middle-aged man, you place a camera at a dog’s two favorite haunts, and you’ve just covered 90% of his life.

This is not an insult to dogs. Dogs are wonderful. But if you set up a camera to watch your dog while you’re at work and then check in at 2pm on a Tuesday, what you will most likely see is a dog on a couch, eyes closed, twitching slightly, dreaming about things to chase and things to hump, and quite frankly they’re probably the same things. Veterinarians will tell you that a sleeping, relaxed dog is actually the best possible outcome. It means he’s comfortable, secure, and not anxious in your absence. This is the ideal.

If you’ve got a dog whose daytime activity level rivals that of a cat, you may have a problem on your hands that somewhat exceeds the security of a camera. May we suggest a dog walking service.

All of this is to say that the camera question for dogs is actually pretty simple. It mostly comes down to where he spends his time.

So let’s jump in and find the best option.

The Indoor Dog 

For an indoor dog, a basic fixed cam pointed at the couch, the bed, or whatever he’s claimed as his domain is going to work just great. Something simple that lets you check-in periodically and shoots you an alert when he decides to move.

There is an argument for pan cams, but for this article, though, we’re going to assume that a pan cam is overkill and we’ll look to save you some money with a basic setup.

Let’s line up the contenders.

Here’s what jumps out.

Nest, at a hundred bucks, is the most expensive camera on this list. It also has no local storage. What it does have is the most generous free cloud tier of the bunch—person, animal, and vehicle alerts included, plus six hours of clip previews, no subscription required. That's nice. But if you’re interested in anything that happened outside of the last six hours, it no longer exists.

Ring and Arlo both require a paid subscription before they'll save a single second of footage. Live view is free. Everything else costs money. Maybe, since we’ve already decided you’re mostly just watching a dog sleep, then just checking in live will be enough for you. But honestly, isn’t the whole point of a camera to be able to check back later on the footage? With Ring and Arlo out of the box, that footage isn’t going to exist.

Eufy is the first camera on the list to support local storage with a microSD card, so you can have some record of what your dog has been up to without having to buy a subscription for the privilege. Like Nest, Eufy will also tell you, without a subscription, that it was an animal that moved in front of the camera. If that’s a big anxiety for you, maybe that’s a draw. But Eufy also costs $79.99 and has IR-only night vision (black and white after dark). You're paying literally twice the price for less of a camera.

Which leaves Wyze. The Cam v4 is $35.98. It has color night vision—actual color, not the washed-out infrared that makes your dog look like a ghost. It also has local, microSD storage right out of the box, which means you can set it up to record continuously and have, without a subscription, the footage on hand if you need to review it later. Plus, with an IP65 weather rating, you can move the camera outside if your situation changes. (Eufy is the only other camera here that can do that.) Pet detection is also available with a Cam Plus subscription at $2.99 a month, if you want the camera to specifically tell you it was your dog that moved.

The Outdoor Dog 

This situation is, admittedly, more complicated.

It’s not just that there might be more to do in the backyard, and more space to cover. It’s that outside, the world is coming at your dog in ways that require a response. If a jogger comes plodding past the fence, that jogger is going to need to be barked at, aggressively and incessantly. Someone must do that barking. It’s that simple. Not to mention birds, squirrels, and paper boys. (Are there still paper boys?)

The Wyze Cam v4 we just discussed has an IP65 weather rating, and will work just fine outside. But you may need more flexibility. You could make more of an argument for pan cams here, but let’s find you something that doesn’t need a plug. Something you can put anywhere. Something you can set and forget.

Here’s a lineup of outdoor battery cams, some with optional solar panels. Let’s see how they stack up.

A few things become clear.

Ring, as usual, wants a bunch of money for not a lot. Their camera is decent, but it will never, ever, under any circumstances, no matter what you buy or subscribe to, allow you to store your own footage locally. At best you can get storage in the cloud for a pricey subscription. Ring’s solar panel also costs nearly as much as the camera itself. Because of course. You’ll be $120 in and still have to buy a subscription if you want to be able to record and review what happened in your backyard today. Come on.

Blink has all its usual storage and functionality-without-a-subscription problems, but on top of that, Blink also doesn't have a solar panel for continuous charging. You'd need a third-party panel, at which point you've had to engineer your own solution for a camera whose storage situation already requires a separate module. Hard pass.

Arlo is a solid camera—2K, color night vision, real solar compatibility—but again, local storage is going to force you to pay an extra hundred bucks. And a subscription is $7.99 to $17.99 a month. That’s all on top of the $70 camera price. If you want the ability to actually record, and keep, and be able to review whatever this camera recorded, you will be into it $170 before you add the solar panel.

The Eufy SoloCam S340 is genuinely interesting. Pricey. But interesting. It's $140, but that price includes solar built right into the unit—no separate panel, no extra purchase, no outlet hunting. It has dual cameras, 3K resolution, free onboard person detection, and free local storage. The catch? That free local storage is a built-in 8GB. That’s gonna go pretty fast shooting in 3K. Genuinely cool camera, but very expensive, and with weirdly limited local storage.

The Wyze Battery Cam Pro is the answer. At $89.98 you get 2.5K HDR, color night vision, and local microSD storage. That’s going to give you way more storage and continuous recording than a measly 8 gigs. Add a solar panel for $25 and you’ve got a camera that will run indefinitely. All this without a subscription. Easy call.

Set it up. Point it at the yard. Let your dog handle his business.

Conclusion 

The best camera for your dog depends almost entirely on where your dog spends his day. Inside, a Wyze Cam v4 pointed at his favorite spot will do the job just fine. Outside, you need something weatherproof, wireless, and preferably capable of being set up anywhere, without being beholden to an outlet. Wyze Battery Cam Pro with the solar panel checks every box.

Either way, here’s hoping all the camera ever has to show you is a happy, contented dog, sleeping peacefully.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I really need a pan-and-tilt camera for my dog?

Probably not. Unless your dog has the chaotic energy of a parkour-loving cat, a fixed camera like the Wyze Cam v4 pointed at their favorite nap spot (the couch, the bed) will cover 90% of their day.

Do I have to pay a monthly subscription to save video clips?

Not with Wyze. While brands like Ring and Arlo hold your footage hostage behind a paywall, Wyze cameras offer local microSD storage right out of the box. You record locally, for free.

What if my dog spends all day in the backyard?

You need a camera that doesn't rely on an outlet and can survive a rainstorm. The Wyze Battery Cam Pro is wire-free, weatherproof, and when paired with a Wyze Solar Panel, it essentially runs forever. No ladder-climbing required.