I've been doing balloons for my restaurants and kid's show for a while now, and have slowly but surely added many great animals to my balloon menu choices. I mostly try to stick to single-balloon creations, sometimes two - in order to keep things moving in the restaurant. So I like to take requests at the tables, if the child has an animal in mind - and while I now have some really cool animals in my arsenal, I will sometimes get a kid who says "a dog!". I can make the fancy poodle, but I find that the boys don't usually want a poodle. I find myself making a regular dog in these cases, and the reactions are minimal (understandably so).

So are there some variations I can learn, for when kids ask for a dog? I think I have a "dachsund" in a booklet at home, so I will look into that again. and as I said, I do offer a "fancy poodle" already. But other than those, any ideas to make dogs more interesting/impressive?

A dog with a baby (or soom food) in his belly

I find that the boys usually enjoy a white large Snoopy with big floppy black ears. Sometimes it's all in presentation. You can usually tell when a boy doesn't REALLY want a dog but can't seem to think of anything else...for these fellas I make Mark's T-Rex and declare it to be a prehistoric dog. My poodles also come with a three minute comedy routine that I recently published in the KIDabra Journal. The presentation is just as important as the balloon, in my case.

Danny -
For a variation, this hat is great! It is one of my all-time favorites. Patricia has some really wonderful stuff.

http://www.balloonhq.com/column/pbunnell/mar05/

I use a 160 (twisted into two loops) for the ears nad nose in lieu of the 260.

When made for a child I will ask how old they are and use that number for the number of "freckles" on each side near the nose.


peace,
phill

Thanks Skip for the props!!

Danny take a look at my site and see if your ready to upgrade your balloons.
http://web.mac.com/markballoonguy/Balloonguy.net/Store.html

I want to make a bigger dog, but not 260s, please pm me thanks.

When someone asks for a dog. I always ask if they want a real cool big dog hat (Mark's). If they say they want a small one to hold I always do it behind my back. Hope that helps.

I like hats so I make a dogonhat. I make a dog with a 160 and use loops for the legs. I take the basic helment hat and pull the legs in tight so it stands tight.

Fast and cute.

Doc

For those wondering....

Bad to the balloon volume #2

Click here to view attached image.

I quite often make Dave Bartlett's dog. It's simple but cute.

I also add a 160 lead to either DBs dog or the standard poodle. There's then load of gags you can do by controlling the dog with the lead.

Large dogs can be made from 646s...


George

My favorite dog is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiFHnsCwDmI

Rest his soul......

Hehehe
You're not right.
Love it.

A couple of simple ideas for dogs. Make a standard dog out of a 350 instead of a 260. Add a 260 leash. The kids all love it. Simple and fast.

A second idea is a "transformer" dog. Again use a 350 and make a hot dog dog. Demontrate to the child that if you turn the head and back legs 180 degrees around, the dog transforms into a giraffe. Add a leash.

A third idea is to add a 5" round black & 5" round white to a standad 260 dog. Blow a tiny bit of air into the 5" black, the it to the nozzle, push the tied nozzle into the balloon and apple twist it. Now your dog has a nose. Blow a tiny bit of air into the 5" white, twist it in half to make 2 eyes and attach it at the apple twist. Make the rest of the dog (ears & legs). Simple yet people are impressed.

Hope these help

I like the look of magicgeorges large dog, brill. any ideas anyone, would like to make this.

For the restaurants that are busy, I do something similar to what MagicGeorge has eating him, but...

I use 1 260 and part of a 160. Instead of the extra balloon for the nose, I add another bubble from the 260 here, then add enough Sharpie markings to make it obviously the nose. Delete the added balloon for the eyes and the collar if you want to keep it down to 1 balloon and a scrap. The 3 bubbles for the top of the head are a little longer than the snout assembly, and the smaller of the three is pinch-twisted, allowing for the addition of the ears, which is what I use the 160 scrap for. You can have small ears which are just a shorter, straight balloon attached in the center, or a figure 8, attached at the intersection. As a simple, cute add-on, add a tongue from a puffed heart balloon. This also adds some possible extra funny bits.