A barking squirrel is another term for a prairie dog, any of the genus Cynomus of small, stout-bodied burrowing rodents which are native to North and Central America.
the prairie dog
Lewis and Clark discovered the prairie dog, which they described as a barking squirrel due to its high-pitched vocalizations that sound similar to a dog's bark. They encountered this animal during their exploration of the western United States in the early 19th century.
Lewis and Clark discovered and described the prairie dog as a "barking squirrel" during their expedition. They encountered this social rodent while exploring the American West.
The expeditioners discovered a new species of primate in the Amazon rainforest that they first described as a barking squirrel due to its unique vocalizations. The animal was later identified as a previously unknown type of tamarin monkey.
Squirrels make a chattering sound or the sound you make by knocking your tongue on the roof of your mouth.
Lewis and Clark described the prairie dog as a "barking squirrel" during their expedition. Prairie dogs are small rodents native to North America that live in underground burrow systems called towns. They communicate with each other through a series of barks and chirps.
Lewis and Clark nicknamed the black-tailed prairie dog 'a barking squirrel.' This is because it looked like a squirrel and barked like a dog.
It may help to think of it this way:A dog chases a squirrel. The squirrel runs up a tree. It then (unseen by the dog) leaps to another tree. If the dog continues to pace around the base of the original tree barking and whining at nothing (since the squirrel is no longer there), that dog is barking up the wrong tree.When used of humans, it generally means something like "she's trying to get something from a person who doesn't have it" or "she thinks a person has/is something, but he really doesn't/isn't."
It may help to think of it this way:A dog chases a squirrel. The squirrel runs up a tree. It then (unseen by the dog) leaps to another tree. If the dog continues to pace around the base of the original tree barking and whining at nothing (since the squirrel is no longer there), that dog is barking up the wrong tree.When used of humans, it generally means something like "she's trying to get something from a person who doesn't have it" or "she thinks a person has/is something, but he really doesn't/isn't."
He/She probably saw a bird. If there was nothing in the sky when he/she started barking, and he/she is in the middle of a field with nothing surrounding it, then it could be that he/she has some problems. If he/she is barking from your backyard then it might be there is a noise coming from the roof. It could a squirrel...
ground squirlles
Making a mistake or a false assumption in something you are trying to achieve.If you're barking up the wrong tree, you're looking for something in the wrong place or going about something in the wrong way.it means she has placed the source of her dissatisfaction on the wrong person...a person that possessed no fault in the current grievanceThe phrase means to discuss something completely different from the subject in hand or to be confused as to the expected responseIf you are a dog, and you are chasing a squirrel or other tree-climbing animal, you follow them to the tree and bark at them. If you bark up the wrong tree, you are barking at nothing, so the idiom means you are on the wrong track; you are making a fuss at the wrong person or over the wrong thing.You are barking up the wrong tree ... when you have come to the wrong conclusion. You need to look at the situation and look at other options...You hear people say that someone involved in a misdirected enterprise is "barking up the wrong tree."This surely arises from the days when it was common to hunt with a dog. The dog would "tree a squirrel" or raccoon or whatever and bark energetically looking up from the base of the tree. It is a common enough occurrence now that dogs chase squirrels or cats or whatever and then sit at the base of a tree barking. But, in a forest, the squirrel or raccoon can change trees and the dog will still focus on the tree where the dog thinks the squirrel was last seen and so remain, "barking up the wrong tree."The idiom implies the person "barking up the wrong tree" is taking action in a direction that is completely wrong to achieve a goal. "If he thinks he is going to get the promotion by wearing a new suit, he is barking up the wrong tree."Misguided assumption, on the wrong track, wrong course of action