Also, study the movement of real animals to get a feel for how they move. The more you practice, the better you'll get. Also, never destroy the illusion in public by just ignoring the puppet. Always keep it alive, and always find a way to keep it supported. When you do these things, you'll be amazed at how life-like it will appear.
Hand puppets with moving mouths.
For this part, I'm just going to briefly cover the Folkmanis puppets that are realistic, but have moving mouths. These puppets are kind of a special case, because they just aren't capable of proper mouth movement, which will be discussed under large hand puppets. Also, these types can be used either realistically or can have voices, so tend to be a bit more flexible that way. For this section, I'm just going to offer a few tips to make them look realistic, proper mouth movement will be discussed later. When I want to make this type of puppet look real, I like to have a little fun with it, such as having it nibble on something, like a hat brim or shirt.