Work through the levels. Reveal the Spangram only when you’re truly ready.
Today’s clue: “Barking up the right tree”
A gentle direction — no specifics.
Closer — the category is coming into focus.
Near-direct — only read if you’re stuck.
Direction only.
Getting closer.
Near-direct.
5 theme words — lengths in random order
Spaces not counted in total
All theme words — shuffled
These words fit the theme on the surface, but aren’t part of today’s solution. Knowing them ahead of time can save you minutes of searching.
A classic hound breed, but the puzzle uses the generic type HOUND instead of specific breeds.
A popular retriever, yet the theme calls for the broader term RETRIEVER.
A spaniel variety, but the puzzle only includes the higher-level label SPANIEL.
A well-known breed, but it's not a hunting dog, so it doesn't fit the spangram's scope.
a textbook decoy
The difficulty score of 5.5 stems from the gap between the obvious “barking” dog association and the actual answers being functional types rather than specific breeds. Once HOUND or TERRIER is spotted, the pattern clicks and the rest—POINTER, RETRIEVER, SPANIEL—fall into place quickly, because they’re all well-known hunting categories. The spangram HUNTINGBREEDS is moderately easy to locate given the board-spanning length, but it can be obscured if you’re hunting for individual breed names first. The puzzle’s biggest misdirection is that solvers might fill the grid with actual breed names like Beagle or Labrador, only to realize those don’t fit the overarching classification requirement.
The clue 'Barking up the right tree' plays on the idiom 'barking up the wrong tree,' which describes a dog mistakenly believing its quarry is up a certain tree. By flipping it to 'right tree,' the puzzle signals that you’re on the correct path to uncovering a set of hunting dogs. It’s a witty nod to the treeing behavior of hounds and the keen noses of the breeds featured. The spangram HUNTINGBREEDS perfectly crystallizes this, while the theme words HOUND, POINTER, RETRIEVER, SPANIEL, and TERRIER represent the major groups that excel at locating and retrieving game.
Editor Tracy Bennett chose to highlight the broad functional categories of hunting dogs—HOUND, POINTER, RETRIEVER, SPANIEL, TERRIER—rather than specific breed names like Beagle or Labrador. This decision makes the theme less trivial, because solvers must think in terms of canine job descriptions rather than popular breeds. The spangram HUNTINGBREEDS unifies the group, emphasizing that these are not just any dogs but those bred for the chase. The puzzle becomes a test of taxonomic knowledge, yet the words are common enough to be guessable once the hunting connection is made.
