I want to make a hot dog in bun puppet with a trigger type mouth on a rod.  I saw the Henson hot dog puppets without buns and I like the way that the bottom mouth opens so cleanly. Any one have an idea of how they do that? It is going to be pretty small, not much bigger than a real hot dog. A referee type character with a whistle that can blow would be nice.  I can put a fake little whistle and blow on it myself but it would be nice to have the hand move to the mouth with the whistle by some mechanism also.  I was looking at the bicycle cable mechs or spring but it has to be small. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Personally I would not make the mouth move if you are using it for stage. Very likely the movement would not be enough to be that noticeable anyway. Focus more on the movements that can be seen. Animation of the arms... should be normal like any puppet.  Then for the whistle, string from end of whistle through mouth down body and rod. Then pull the string to make the whistle come to mouth! Easy! The rod should let you bring the whistle away from mouth although more then likely releasing the string it well fall because of weight and gravity.

He will be an up close puppet used as a counseling referee. You know he may not need to talk, just stop the argument when it gets "out of bounds" with his whistle. His name is an acronym for the rules of fighting.  You gave me an idea, I could weight the whistle more so it does disengage from mouth when fishing line is released. Why not use gravity, it is free.  Thank you Shawn.

Yep gravity is our friend!   Well at least in this case.