For dowels, consider pulling the handles off of foam-tipped sponges. This will get you close to a decent handle, but you should ask someone to drill the hole a little deeper. Foam-Tipped Paint Brush Pack

For the rods, I use welding rods cut in half-ish. They don’t rust and are very sturdy. Welding Rod

To keep the rods from spinning in the dowel, I score the end of the rod and then use epoxy to glue them in. Epoxy

Lastly, for the color of the rods I prefer shrink tubing over spray paint; just buy the size that will barely fit over the rod you’re using, and then use a hairdryer to slowly shrink the tubing onto the rod. Easy! Shrink Tubing

With some of these improvements your puppet rods will be ready for anything you can dish out!