Hello!

I am trying to convert a soft toy dog into a puppet that can nod and shake its head, but not as a hand puppet - and it does not have a functional mouth.

It needs to be operated by some kind of rod/cable mechanism, so that the operator appears to be carrying the dog, not operating a puppet. I’m envisioning maybe it is operated by pulling on a cord/ring/rod that protrudes a little between the dog’s front legs?? (It’s “Willoughby”, Miss Lark’s dog in a stage production of “Mary Poppins”, if that makes sense to any of you!?!)

I’ve built hand puppets before, but a mechanism for moving the head is a puzzle to me – I haven’t done one! I think I can understand how to get it to move up and down, but a mechanism that does a sideways movement that is compatible with a vertical moving mechanism (but no mouth) has me muddled!

I am sure for many of you this is ridiculously simple… please could you share some ideas? (pictures if possible?!)

Thanks so much!

Wendy.

A ball joint is what you are looking for. Something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE5560C65C3EC678E

Huh, I've actually seen a street performer do something like this, but in their case it was a hand puppet. IIRC the puppet was a 'toy dog' (ie a small breed, not a plaything) inside a large bag. By appearing to hold the bag (or if I'm wrong, carry the dog in their arm), the operating hand appeared hidden by the bag/dog body and so it was hard to notice the fact that they were moving it about even though the hand was inside the bag. ....  Sadly, I have no pics...

Not what you want I know, but it may spark some thought. I wonder also if a bunraku mech might help. The Japanese use a simple up/down/left/right by having the head on a stick and then slotting the stick into a flat wooden shoulder piece. This means the head/rod can rotate smoothly, whilst a simple trigger mech inside the head down to the rod makes a nodding action. You can see the mech here:
http://photos.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/index.php?/category/13

If you combine both ideas you could have the head separate to the body, but inserted into a hole in the neck, and a gap in the underbelly for the operating hand. This way the hand/arm 'holds' the dog as one would when carrying it, but also use the same hand to move the head. If you're still worried about making it less obvious, stick the dog in a bag or whatever and cut a slit in that too.

(Shawn's suggestion is probably better if not just as good... but thought I'd add this idea because I've actually seen someone do that kind of dog performance)

Oh, only just realised you're Aussie! Welcome! I'm down in Melbourne, and it might help you to know that I saw the dog street performer at the Carnival day during the Perth 2008 international puppetry festival. I'm pretty sure the performer was Aussie too, so if you want to ask around someone might be able to tell you more about it. Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in WA, if I recall, were some of the main organisers, and the guys at unima.org.au (or their members/mailing list) would have been involved or know people to contact about that performer.

EDITED TO ADD: Conveniently I happen to have my stack of ephemera in reach and found the program from the Carnival day. I could not see at a glance the performer who did the dog, but can scan it in if you want a list of companies to narrow down the field of potential contacts.

Thanks so much for your ideas and information!! Ideas trigger further ideas!! Much appreciated!!!

Here’s what has ended up happening: We found that the puppet needed to be operated by the thumb only so we’ve ended up making a mechanism which essentially uses the jointed parallelogram principle: 2 heavy wires (coathanger) in parallel between a wooden head piece and a small wooden block that sits under the dog’s belly. This second block has a hole cut through, which fits the puppeteer’s thumb. Moving/tilting thumb up and down tilts head, and sideways movement of thumb moves head sideways. Seems to be working!!

Thanks again to everyone for sharing your knowledge!!

Hope you took some pictures of the device... would love to see it!

yeah me too. Take some pics

Hmmm, pararallelogram... should have thought of that too as I'd seen it done before! Oh well, glad you happened on it and it sounds like a perfect solution. Hope you post some pics later!