This four-week-old baby raccoon just isn’t getting the hang of climbing, despite its mother’s persistence.

Jeffrey Reid filmed the scene in his dad’s backyard in Port Townsend, Washington. In the video, the baby raccoon struggles to grasp the climbing basics, clinging unsuccessfully to the tree trunk while held by its mother.

"It soon became clear that the mother was giving climbing lessons," Reid told National Geographic. 

Raccoons, much like most animals, learn through watching their mothers and copying their actions. As Florida State University biologist Dr. Joseph Travis tells National Geographic: "She's saying, ‘Watch me, now you do it.’ The mother is going to keep putting it on the trunk until the kit figures it out. It takes some trial and error by the offspring to get it right.”

With repeated efforts from its mom, the cub is soon clinging to the trunk like a pro.

[H/T: National Geographic]