Dog personality
Tradition sees the Dog as the zodiac's most loyal friend: honest, fair and protective, with a strong sense of right and wrong and the courage to stand up for it. People born in Dog years are read as dependable and sincere, generous with their time and fiercely devoted to family and friends. They are credited with good instincts about people and a readiness to help without being asked.
The shadow side is anxiety. Dogs are read as prone to worry and pessimism, wary of strangers, and stubborn once they have decided someone is in the wrong. Tradition's advice to the Dog is to give the world the benefit of the doubt it gives its friends, and to rest when the watch is over.
The Dog in love and friendship
A Dog is read as a faithful, protective partner who takes commitment seriously and values honesty above everything. Tradition's best matches are the Tiger and the Horse, the Dog's partners in the trio of animals four years apart: the Tiger shares its sense of justice, and the Horse its warmth and energy. The Rabbit is the Dog's secret friend, one of the six harmonious pairs, read as the gentle partner who eases a Dog's worries.
The Dragon sits opposite the Dog, six years away, and the pair is read as the classic clash: the Dog questions what the Dragon takes for granted. The Rooster, one of the six harming pairs, is read as too proud and critical for a Dog. These readings go by animal alone. Tradition also weighs each person's element, and the grid further down links to every other animal's page.
The Dog at work
Tradition expects Dogs to do well in work that serves and protects: law, social work, medicine and nursing, teaching, the police and campaigning for a cause. They are read as trustworthy colleagues who keep everyone honest. Office politics, and jobs that ask them to bend their principles, are what tradition expects a Dog to find hardest.
When is the next Year of the Dog?
The next Year of the Dog begins on February 3, 2030 and runs until January 22, 2031. It will be a Metal Dog year, 庚戌 gēngxū, the forty-seventh year of the sixty-year cycle; tradition reads Metal as drawn from the Dog's own Earth, making the Metal Dog the most principled Dog. The last Year of the Dog was an Earth Dog year, from February 16, 2018 to February 4, 2019.
The Dog in the Great Race
In the best-known story of how the zodiac got its order, the Jade Emperor held a race across a wide river, and the animals took their places in the order they finished. The Dog was one of the best swimmers in the race, but the clear water was too tempting: it stopped to play and bathe in the river, and by the time it climbed out only the Pig was still behind it. The Dog came eleventh.
When does the Year of the Dog begin?
Each Year of the Dog starts at the Lunar New Year, the new moon that begins the first month of the Chinese calendar, which falls between January 21 and February 20. So Dog years don't line up with calendar years: someone born on February 10, 2018 is a Fire Rooster, because the Earth Dog year began six days later, on February 16. The checker at the top of this page and the Chinese zodiac calculator both allow for this, and the table above gives the first and last day of every Dog year since 1910.
Four Pillars astrology (BaZi) counts the year differently, from Lichun, the start of spring in the solar calendar, around February 4. Its Dog years begin on that day instead, so for a few days either side of the Lunar New Year the two systems can disagree.