Eggcorn Forum

Looking in the wrong place, or accusing the wrong person, or following the wrong lead, or generally choosing the wrong target for attention can all be considered to be “barking up the wrong tree”, dog. Malaysia and Singapore are hotbeds for alteration and reinterpretation of this phrase, especially as barking on the wrong tree. You can see immediately that this slight shift will lead to no good.

Rocky, I believe you are really barking on the wrong tree. (http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/bar_news … tree_.html)

For all those who think that Anwar should swear in the name of Allah using the Quran to prove his innocence, you are definitely barking the wrong tree. (http://www.thekualalumpurtraveler.com/a … rong-tree/)

You see, people who have been led to ‘green pastures’ do not need leader shepherd to govern them anymore. Why do you need to come under leaders when you are in ‘green pastures’? To teach you how to eat? So if you still come under somebody’s house rules, you have been barking on the wrong tree of knowledge of good and evil!
(http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/06/your-voice-on-toc/)
(I’ve included this one despite my failure to understand at all what he’s getting at)

This time we are lucky to have a discussion group about the possible meaning of the perplexing phrase, barking on the wrong tree.

I think it’s …barking the wrong tree... (to bark is to remove the outer covering of the tree itself) which means that one is trying to push for information from a person who doesn’t have to do anything about it.
(http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/650298.aspx)

I would guess it means that when someone jumps to compain about something, and blame someone or something else, it means that they are way off, and the expression that a dog s barking on the wrong tree evolved from that.
(http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/650298.aspx)
Full marks

I’m not sure of it’s origin but It’s mostly used as “parking up the wrong tree” and it means accusing or going after the wrong person (or following the wrong lead, etc) and it may come from a chase dog when sent after someone and the escaped person has no where to hide but to climb a tree to be safe from the dog, as the people following the dog arrive they will find the dog “parking up the tree” where the escaped man is hiding.. so parking up the wrong tree would be a very wrong accusation without a prove like a dog that can’t follow the smell.
(http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/650298.aspx)
How rare to have evidence that a switch is a simple malaprop, since dogs go “park, park” for this person.

Other wobbly grasps of the idiom:

Product marketing plan:
So, according to the write-up, the mechanism is that a DM straw is given to the drink purchaser. So, my question is….what’s the point in spending the $ to do up a DM when you’ve grabbed the consumer? You don’t need to demonstrate the benefit of the product to them since they’ve already know what’s the drink is for. It’s like barking on the wrong tree.
(http://adsoftheworld.com/node/35770)

According to a recent Frontline episode called Diet Wars, “Americans spend $40 billion a year on books, products, and programs designed to help us lose weight.” This shows that we are obviously barking the wrong tree. Either we are not doing enough or what we are doing isn’t working. (http://www.isnare.com/?aid=162284&ca=We … s+and+Diet)

One to puzzle over:

Both of you are beating around the bush ( I don’t wish to use the word barking the wrong tree because it is rude and can cause misunderstanding esp. if you are over sensitive)
(http://sanooaung.wordpress.com/tag/datu … r-ibrahim/)