When someone is chasing the wrong idea or blaming the wrong person, we say they're barking up the wrong tree. It's a phrase most of us have used without a second thought. But it paints a very specific picture, and it comes straight out of the American backwoods.
The expression became common in 19th-century America from raccoon hunting with dogs. When a raccoon fled into a tree at night, the hunting dog was supposed to stay at the base and bark until its owner arrived. But in the dark, a dog could pick the wrong tree, barking away while the raccoon slipped off. The hunter would lose the prize, and the phrase was born.
Night Hunts in the Woods
Raccoons are nocturnal, so hunters went after them at night. Raccoons are also excellent climbers. They rely on trees and other tall structures to escape danger, and they can even climb down headfirst by turning their hind feet backward, an unusual skill for a mammal their size.
That made hunting them tricky. Regular foxhounds didn't work well against animals that climbed trees instead of staying on the ground. The dogs would get confused, lose the scent, and mill around. So American hunters and breeders developed special treeing hounds, dogs that could track an animal on the ground and keep following it when it went up a tree.
Hunters often didn't chase along with their dogs. They would wait and listen to the dogs' distinctive baying to tell whether the prey had been treed. If the dog had picked the wrong tree, the whole night could be wasted. Sometimes an animal might also leap from one tree to another, leaving the dog barking at an empty trunk.
A Favorite of Frontier Writers
The saying was popular with writers of Western life and tall tales. In 1833, James Hall used it in his book Legends of the West. That same year, a book of sketches about Davy Crockett described someone as reminding him of "an old coon dog barking up the wrong tree."
By 1838, the phrase had reached Congress. A representative from Ohio warned colleagues that instead of having treed their game, they would find themselves "still barking up the wrong tree." A year later, a New York newspaper wrote of a puppy that barks up the wrong tree out of reckless indifference.
What It Means Today
Today the phrase means to be mistaken about what you're after, or to pursue the wrong course to get it. If you're barking up the wrong tree, you've misunderstood the situation or you're looking for answers in the wrong place.
The dogs behind the phrase are still around. Breeds like the Treeing Walker Coonhound and the Black and Tan Coonhound were developed in the United States for this kind of hunting. The Treeing Walker is known for a clear, ringing voice that lets its owner pick out its bay from far away.
A Little Piece of American History
Many common sayings come from long-forgotten ways of life, and this one is a perfect example. It started with a hound, a raccoon, and a dark forest, and it ended up in everyday conversation across the country.
So the next time someone accuses you of barking up the wrong tree, you can smile and picture a bewildered hound in the moonlight, howling proudly at a tree with nothing in it.
