This is a specific conversation about Pet cameras — watching them when you're away — ask about yours and get one honest answer for your exact situation.
inparticular.ai
Monitoring a scent-obsessed Bloodhound patrolling a fence line is a very specific job — you need a camera that can follow movement across a wide horizontal area outdoors, not just watch a static spot. Pet cameras range from basic motion-activated models to ones with two-way audio and treat dispensers, and the right pick really depends on what you actually want to do with it. So: is this purely for keeping an eye on him, or do you also want to be able to call him back when he's heading somewhere he shouldn't? And is he out there unsupervised for long stretches, or are you just checking in occasionally?
Mostly just watching him, to be honest. He has a big garden but he fixates on a smell along the back fence and I worry he'll find a weak spot. I just want to see what he's doing in real time — no treats or two-way stuff needed. He can be out there for a couple of hours while I'm working.
inparticular.ai
Got it — passive monitoring, outdoors, covering a fence line over a decent stretch of garden. Before I point you at something specific, a couple of quick questions: is the camera going to be near a power socket or does it need to be battery-powered? And what's the lighting like back there — does it need to cope with full sun glare or low light in the evenings?
No socket nearby so battery would be better. It's mainly daytime use but some dusk too, so it needs to handle both. The fence runs maybe 15 metres across the back of the garden.
inparticular.ai
Perfect — that narrows it right down. For your setup I'd go with the Reolink Argus 3 Pro. It's a battery-powered outdoor camera with a 2K colour image, a 122-degree wide-angle lens, and genuinely solid colour night vision powered by a spotlight rather than the usual washed-out infrared — so dusk coverage is actually good. The motion detection zone is customisable, which matters here because you can draw it along the fence line specifically and not get constant alerts every time a leaf moves in the foreground. Battery life is reasonable for a couple of hours of daily use — roughly two to three months between charges depending on how active your Bloodhound is. It connects to the Reolink app for live view anytime, stores footage locally on a microSD card, and it's genuinely weatherproof. For watching a dog patrol 15 metres of fence with no mains power available, it does everything you need without paying for features you don't want.
That sounds exactly right. Does it stay recording continuously or only when it detects movement?
inparticular.ai
It defaults to motion-triggered recording to protect the battery, which is what you want for a battery model — you'd drain it in days running it continuously. But because Bloodhounds move slowly and deliberately when they're tracking, the motion detection picks them up reliably; it's not going to miss him shuffling along the fence. You can also open the app for a live view at any time regardless of motion, so if you want to check in mid-morning you just tap in and watch. The combination of motion clips saved to the SD card plus on-demand live view gives you a complete picture of what he's been up to.
Great, I think that's the one. Does the mounting work for a fence post or do I need a separate bracket?
inparticular.ai
It comes with an adjustable ball-joint mount that fixes to a flat surface — a fence post works fine if it's wide enough to get a screw into, or you can mount it to a nearby garden wall or shed and angle it across toward the fence line. The ball joint gives you a lot of flexibility so you don't need to be perfectly positioned to get the right view. One thing worth doing: mount it high enough that a curious Bloodhound nose can't reach it — they will investigate anything at snout height given half a chance.
