Dog Marionettes completed

 I built the two Dog marionettes back before my surgery, saving the fur coverings for afterward while I was recuperating.
Here they are completed:

 PIERRE the smaller of the two at 18" high with his balancing ball. The ball has a hollow tube running through it. A string runs from nose to a ring worn by the "Trainer" who tosses the ball and raises his hand at the same time so the ball is "caught" by Pierre on the nose. A magnet holds the ball in place so the Trainer can then lower his hand and eventually snatch the ball back from the dog's nose at the end of the act.

 "What You Lookin' At?"
 I found this fleece-like synthetic fur which looked more like actual dog hair than standard faux fur. It is judiciously hot melt glued to the wooden body with some area's left uncovered and painted off white.

 CHLOIE is Pierre's larger sister at 26" tall. Like Pierre she catches and balances a ball on her nose by the same method.

This really simple design has rendered a surprising range of "dog like" movements with just a twist or dip of the controllers. The tails are wooden beads on heavy plastic zip ties and mounted to the rump of each dog. As they walk the tails "wag" .

These were designed just as a 2 minute walk across bit while the Carnival set pieces are moved into place behind, but they turned out so well that I'm afraid they will steal the scene and the audience's hearts as well. So they may have to make another appearance at some point in the play.