No — a pet camera streams over your network, so a router outage takes the live view with it. Models with a microSD slot keep recording locally, which is the only footage that survives.
A camera is a network device first and a camera second.
What breaks
The live view, the alerts, and anything cloud-recorded. If the router is down, the app shows nothing.
What can survive
Local recording to a microSD card, where the model supports it. That is also the feature that removes the subscription for recordings entirely.
Power cuts
Take the router with them, so the camera is offline even if it is on a battery. Anyone using a camera as a security measure should know that.
The practical view
For its actual job — seeing what the dog does when alone — a camera on a working home network is fine. As infrastructure you depend on, it is not.
This does not replace your device’s manual. Blade temperatures, locking mechanisms and cleaning procedures differ from model to model, and the manufacturer’s instructions take precedence over anything written here. Unplug a device before dismantling it, check a hot blade or an air nozzle against your own hand before it goes anywhere near an animal, and keep a mechanism that closes or rotates under supervision until you know how it behaves.
Last reviewed 2026-08-17