The Puppy Puppet, the Diy Dog or the Marionette Mutt

I've always loved puppets. I think they are really fun. They are like low tech remote control robots that run entirely without batteries. They can be super simple to build, but they can have complex movements and tell complex stories.

My son loves dogs and my wife is allergic to them, so this seemed like a fun way to give him a puppy, but without us having to feed it, pick up poop or take it for walks.

Supplies:

Some plywood scraps

Some screws

Some string

Some leather or material

Tools:

A jigsaw

A grinder with a sanding tool attachment

A drill

A Chisel

A hand saw.

(I mean, you could get by with a drill, a coping saw, a rasp and a chisel, but it would take a bit longer)

I had a browse of marionette dogs and puppets on Pinterest and YouTube to see what kinds of mechanisms people often used and to get the basic idea.

There are actually a lot of ways to do this, some of the stick puppets are probably a whole lot more simple to use, but I really liked marionette ones because I like that every part has it's own string to pull.

I drew the shape of the dog on paper, then traced it again so that I could cut out the bits even when they overlapped.

I cut out the templates and laid them down on the wood, drawing around them. I took note to make sure I had two of each of the leg pieces and both sides of the body. I used a jigsaw to cut them all out. It didn't take too long.

I had to figure out how to create the joints, there are much simpler joins, like fabric or rope hinges, or just using actual hinges, but I kinda wanted to go traditional and make lapping joints. It turned out to be pretty easy with a handsaw and a chisel. Use the saw to cut halfway through the plywood. Plywood splits off into layers quite simply with the chisel. For centre joins, actually, it's easier to use the chisel to split the wood, do it like a half join and then glue it back together. Although there is a gluing time to add, the reality is that plywood is going to inevitably split when you try it, so you are probably going to have to glue it anyway and deciding to do that will save you a lot of time.

You can't have a head or boy the same width as the legs, that would just look odd. So glue them up. PVA Wood glue is your friend.

I rounded the bits off with a grinder that had a rough sanding attachment on it. It's ok, but probably wear good gloves, because when pushing small parts onto a grinder blade, it's near inevitable that it's going to catch somehow and sand your knuckles or fingernails a bit more than you hope for. Probably there are much safer methods, like using a vice to hold the piece or filing the pieces with a rasp, but I had one day to do the project and I wanted speed.

Screw it all together

This was where the project got interesting. Because lifting a foot up is different from a convincing leg movement. I tried a few methods before realising that the back foot didn't need to move. I actually preferred it in the same place whether the leg was up or down. So I glued that in place. I also realised that the length of the body ropes is the difference between feet always being up or never being up. There is a sweet spot in the middle where the legs move correctly.

I also noticed that the back legs would bend in odd directions if the ropes weren't properly in the right place, the legs had tipping points where if they bent too far, I would pull the ropes and the legs wanted to go in the other direction. So I used some staples and hooks to ensure that the ropes were always pulling from the right directions. This took a bit of experimenting to get right.

I also noticed that I got much better results when the strings to the back of the body were connected behind the legs on the controller. I also crossed the strings for the front legs, so that when I tip the controller from side to side, I get a front leg and the opposite back leg lifting up together like a walking motion.

This is the fun part. It takes a bit of working out, but actually it's all far more intuitive than it seems like it would be.

I think that a really quick and easy method for having a play would be to cut the shapes to be joined with soft fabric joins. That would save a lot of time.

I also saw one on Pinterest where the legs were sprung to a certain position by using elastic bands, instead of having strings to control the puppet, there was a stick with a brake cable that pulled the front and back legs in and out together like a running dog. The legs could bend by pushing the puppet down with the stick. It was simple and effective. The same thing for the head, one stick to control the head, so tilt, and everything was easy. I think I would try that method rather than strings, strings get tangled. That looks like it is easier to store and easier for kids to control.