"dog barking on the wrong tree..."

On a personal note, it's like accusing someone who has not committed the crime at all. . . pointing the wrong person.

I never gave it much thought. 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. What is your opinion?

I like the phrase and it does have a point to it somewhat.

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.

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.