The balloon dog is the classic first step into balloon twisting for many people. But how do you make a balloon dog? It's actually pretty simple, and you can find loads of tutorials about it. But to explain it in a few simple steps:
1. Get a balloon and pump it up about half way. You will be twisting the balloon a lot to make all the body parts and this will use up the excess uninflated part of the balloon.
2. Twist off the nose and two ears. For this you want to make 3 "bubbles" which are about 3-4 fingers wide. You twist & lock together the first gap between bubble 1 & 2, and bubble 3 & the rest of the balloon. This is a little confusing to read in words, so the picture below is from the excellent book "The Big Book of Balloon Art" by Gerry Giovinco.
3. Repeat the process of twisting off bubbles until you have created a nose, 2 ears, a neck, 2 front legs, a body, 2 back legs and a tail. A key tip is to make sure you're always twisting the balloon the same way, so you're not inadvertently untwisting the last bubble as you're making the next. Also make sure you do a good 4-5 twists when you're 'locking' the ears together and the legs together - you want to make sure they're not going to untwist.
4. Ideally you want all your bubbles to be about the same size for a traditional balloon dog. When you get to the tail, you can decide whether you want to "push" some of the air to the end of the balloon if it's partly uninflated to create a "poodle effect". In my example the proportions aren't perfect.. but it's all about practice!
5. If you have left over uninflated balloon, tie a knot and trim off the excess with scissors.
Once you've mastered how to twist a dog you can experiment with other dog breeds - like a sausage dog which has much shorter legs and a much longer body. The basic dog can also have its nose, ear, neck, leg, body, tail proportions changed and transform into a cat, a horse, a giraffe, a rabbit, a mouse... and many other animals.
Enjoy!