A dog barking monitor for when you're out

Does your dog bark all afternoon, or do the neighbors have it wrong? Leave a spare iPhone or iPad at home with Bokedex listening. It hears your dog's barking, works out what each bark is about, and shows every episode on your own phone, with short clips and an alert if it keeps going.

Download on theApp Store

Bokedex Home monitor: the living room iPad listening and charging at 92%, 5 barks today, 1 min 20 s of barking, 1 alert, and today's timeline.

How it works

Home monitor, in three steps.

Set up the spare phone

On the device that stays home, open Home monitor, choose Use this iPhone as the monitor and tap Start listening. Plug it in for long days.
Head out

It keeps listening with the screen locked. Speech, TV chatter and other sounds are dropped; only moments with a dog are kept.
Check in from anywhere

Your own phone, signed in to the same Apple Account, shows the timeline and gets an alert if barking goes on.

What you see on your phone

Timeline: Each barking episode with its time, length and kind of bark, like alert or attention.
Excitement: How worked up your dog sounded: calm, engaged or very excited.
Clips: Turn them on to keep a 6-second clip of each episode and hear it for yourself.
Totals: Barks today, total barking time and alerts sent.
Monitor status: Which device is listening, its battery level and when it last checked in.

Alerts that don't flood you

Choose when to hear about it: after 30 seconds, 1 minute or 2 minutes of barking within five minutes, or turn alerts off. You'll get at most one alert every 15 minutes, and none while you're looking at the monitor. The alert tells you your dog's name and how long the barking lasted.

Built for a phone on a shelf

The monitor checks in every 15 minutes, so if it goes quiet for about 40 minutes, your phone shows that it may have stopped. You also see its battery level, so you know when to plug it in.

Private by design

Barks sync through your own private iCloud database. There's no Bokedex server, and we can't see or hear anything. Without iCloud, the monitor still works and keeps the timeline on the home device. Episodes and clips are deleted after 7 days.

Using what you find

Barking that clusters in the first minutes after you leave is worth a closer look. Bokedex's Quiet at home and Separation distress plans start there, and a vet or behavior professional can help when it's panic rather than boredom.

Why dogs bark when you leave, and how to read the timeline

Good to know. Put the monitor in the room where your dog spends the day, plug it in and turn the TV off before you go. It's audio only, so nothing is filmed.

Questions

Home monitor: common questions

Do I need two devices?

Yes: a spare iPhone or iPad that stays home, and your own iPhone to check the timeline. Both need to be signed in to the same Apple Account.

Can I use an old iPhone as a dog monitor?

Yes. Any iPhone or iPad with iOS 17 or later can stay home as the monitor. Plug it in, put it in the room where your dog spends the day and tap Start listening.

Does it keep listening with the screen locked?

Yes, until you tap Stop monitoring. iOS shows its microphone indicator the whole time.

Is Home monitor free?

Home monitor is part of Bokedex Premium.

Does it record everything?

No. Sounds are checked on the device and only episodes where a dog is heard are kept. Clips are optional and last 6 seconds.

Can my partner see the timeline too?

It shows on every device signed in to the same Apple Account as the monitor.

Do barking alerts show on my Apple Watch?

Yes, if your iPhone's notifications show on your watch. Alerts arrive like any other Bokedex notification.

How much iCloud storage does it use?

Very little. Episodes are small records, clips are 6 seconds, and everything is deleted after 7 days.