Barking up the wrong tree became common use in nineteenth century America in reference to hunting raccoons with a hunting dog. When the nocturnal animal takes to a tree, the dog is supposed to remain at the base of the tree until its owner arrives. However, in the dark, if the dog mistakes the tree where the raccoon has taken refuge, the hunter may lose it. The expression was commonly used by writers of western life and tales, appearing in works by James Hall, David Crockett, and Albert Pike.3
Walsh, William Shepard. (1909). Handy-book of literary curiosities, p. 80. https://archive.org/details/handybooklitera04walsgoog/page/n84 ↩
"Barking up the wrong tree - Idiom Definition". TheIdioms.com. Retrieved 2018-07-04. https://www.theidioms.com/bark-up-the-wrong-tree/ ↩
Funk, Charles Earle, and Tom Funk. 2107 curious word origins, sayings and expressions from white elephants to a song and dance. Galahad Books, 1993. ↩
Thornton, Richard H. and Louise Hanley. (1912). An American glossary, p. 43. ↩
Pike, Albert (2003). Prose Sketches and Poems Written in the Western Country. Publisher Kessinger Publishing. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-7661-4465-1. Retrieved 2010-01-18. 978-0-7661-4465-1 ↩