Lately, Kiki has been very acrobatic and hyperactive, she’s into climbing I guess. I have seen her climbing up to my work desk through the extension cord from the ground. The extension cord acts as a ladder, a bridge to my work desk. I didn’t hesitate to teach her the Somersault Trick after she’s performed so many stunts around the house. It’s a fairly simple trick which Kiki learnt it within a day. I never ever doubt about Kiki’s capabilities in learning new tricks.

Kiki performing the trick…

How do I teach?
First a perch is require. Since Kiki has tiny feet I have to find a small perch suitable for her to perform trick on top of it. I have to ensure that Kiki is possible have full grip whole of the perch. I use a pen instead, I think is ideal and it does save cost too.

To get things started, I place Kiki on the perch. The other hand holding off the treat below her foot level. This force her to lean forward and left handing upside down like a bat. Next, I bring the treat back on top of the perch and this force to climb back to the perch to recover herself. When she did this, I praised her and gave her the treat. I repeated this cycle a couple of times until she can comfortably complete the cycle herself without the step by step coaxing her.

Soon she confident in doing the trick, I slowly enhance a recognizable hand cue and voice cue. Upon the hand cue and voice cue, when she able to perform the trick, I praised and treated her accordingly.