Meaning of bark up the wrong tree'''?
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Perhaps this saying originated one day when a dog owner yelled out to his dog 'you're barking up the wrong tree!' when their dog was barking up a tree that it thought a cat was in but the cat was actually in another three.
It just meanst that you're doing something in the wrong place or time.
You're complaining to the wrong person
Your telling or bothering the wrong person.
refers to hunting dogs barking up a tree that has no game in it.
Come's from hunting dogs who tree raccoons or squirrels or whatever. Many times either the dog goes to the wrong tree or the prey moves to another tree as soon as it gets high enough. Then the dog is left "barking up the wrong tree". Mine do it with squirrels all the time.
It is a popular phrase with Coonhunters, who go out at night, with hounds, chasing raccoons, whenever the raccoon has been successfully ran up a tree, the hounds will stay at that tree, and bark "Treed" the word used when the dogs are barking at the coon.
But in some cases the raccoons are smart, and will trick young hounds by going up the tree ahead of the dogs just a little ways, and then jump off going even further, when the hounds reach the tree, they smell the track of the coon and assume the raccoon is there, not realizing the coon is not there,(this is where you get the phrase, "barking up the wrong tree) most senior citizen hounds have figured this trickery out, and search a wide area around the "bumped" tree to see that there is no further scent to investigate, If the coon has left, then that hound will "trail" further until finding the coon. On moonlit nights this is a problem for coonhunters, whereas the coons will travel very far distances when hunted.
this refers to the act of going in the completely wrong direction to solve something. it originated from that story of dogs (of which others have already posted). for example, if someone asked me to go and buy them a "bat" and i went to all the pet shops in the world looking for a little black bat to buy for them when all they really wanted was just a baseball bat. That would be barking up the wrong tree.
This simply means you are asking the wrong person for advise,go else where for your answer. This person either doesnt know or possible is in the same boat as yourself, and cannot help you.
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