Filming your Shih Tzu's water intake for the vet

Your vet has asked you to monitor your Shih Tzu's water intake remotely throughout the day — that's a really specific brief, and the good news is a pet camera handles it well. Pet cameras range from basic motion-activated models to ones with two-way audio and treat dispensers, but for a vet monitoring task like this, what matters most is reliable motion detection, clear footage, and the ability to review clips on demand without sitting watching a live feed all day. Is your dog drinking from a bowl in one fixed spot, and are you mainly at work during the hours the vet wants covered?

Perfect — a fixed location makes this much simpler. You need a camera that triggers a recorded clip every time there's movement near the bowl, timestamps each clip, and stores them so you can count visits at the end of the day and share what you've found with your vet. What's your Wi-Fi like in the kitchen — is the router nearby or is it a weaker signal spot?

Good signal makes setup straightforward. For exactly this use case I'd recommend the TP-Link Tapo C200. It's a compact indoor pan-and-tilt camera that you can point precisely at the water bowl, records motion-triggered clips with timestamps direct to a microSD card or the free Tapo app, and the footage is clear enough to see a small dog drinking — which matters for a Shih Tzu. You can scroll back through the clip history at the end of your day and count each visit, then share screenshots or clip counts with your vet. It's around £25–30, connects in a few minutes, and the app is genuinely easy to use without any fuss. One thing — pick up a 32GB microSD card at the same time if you want local storage rather than relying on the cloud.

The Tapo C200's motion detection is sensitive enough that it will catch virtually every visit as long as you position it at bowl height or slightly above and aimed directly at the drinking spot — maybe a metre away on a counter or shelf. The main thing to avoid is pointing it where there's a window behind the bowl, as shifting light can cause false triggers and occasionally suppress real ones. Set the sensitivity to medium or high in the app and do a quick test before you leave on the first morning by walking past the bowl yourself to confirm it's triggering. For a Shih Tzu's size and movement speed it works reliably.

Yes — log the time of each clip and roughly how long she spends at the bowl, which the timestamps make easy. Also note if she approaches but walks away without drinking, since that can be just as useful clinically. If you can see how much water is in the bowl at the start and end of the day that's a helpful cross-check too. A simple notes app on your phone works fine — you don't need anything fancy. Between the clip timestamps and a rough volume estimate, your vet will have a solid picture of what's going on.