Dog in the Chinese zodiac: years, character and affinities

← Back to Chinese astrology

The Dog in brief

The Dog is the eleventh animal of the cycle. Its branch, 戌 (xū), corresponds to the hour from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., nightfall, when someone keeps watch over the house, and to late autumn. In the zodiac, it embodies loyalty, vigilance and a sense of justice.

Its Chinese name is 狗, pronounced gǒu. It corresponds to the earthly branch 戌 (xū), which has yang polarity and which, in the theory of the five phases, carries the Earth element. Be careful not to confuse this element, which belongs to the animal, with the element of your year of birth, which varies: see below. In the traditional division of the day, the branch 戌 designates the hour from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. It is linked to the season of “autumn” and to the west-north-west direction on the traditional compass.

The years of the Dog (1936 to 2032)

Here are the years under the sign of the Dog, with the element of each and the exact dates (Chinese New Year, according to the tables of the Hong Kong Observatory). A person born in January or early February, before the date indicated, generally belongs to the previous sign.

Year	Sign and element	Polarity	Period (from Chinese New Year to the eve of the next one)
1946	Fire Dog	yang	from 2 February 1946 to 21 January 1947
1958	Earth Dog	yang	from 18 February 1958 to 7 February 1959
1970	Metal Dog	yang	from 6 February 1970 to 26 January 1971
1982	Water Dog	yang	from 25 January 1982 to 12 February 1983
1994	Wood Dog	yang	from 10 February 1994 to 30 January 1995
2006	Fire Dog	yang	from 29 January 2006 to 17 February 2007
2018	Earth Dog	yang	from 16 February 2018 to 4 February 2019
2030	Metal Dog	yang	from 3 February 2030 to 22 January 2031

To understand this calculation, see the page on how to calculate your Chinese zodiac sign.

Symbolic portrait of the Dog

Tradition describes the Dog as loyal, honest and protective. It is associated with a sense of friendship, frankness, a sense of justice, a need to be useful and loyalty to one’s own. The Dog defends its values and the people it loves.

The symbolic reverse side: constant worry, distrust of strangers, a tendency towards pessimism, stubbornness, and a sharp reaction to what it sees as unjust. Popular portraits also say that it hides its doubts behind a self-assured attitude. These are traditional images, not diagnoses.

In the zodiac, the Dog is a yang sign of Earth: stability, a sense of duty, attachment to place and to the group.

The Dog in Chinese culture

The celestial dog. In traditional accounts of eclipses, a celestial dog (tiāngǒu, 天狗) devours the Sun or the Moon. People made noise, with drums and pans, to frighten it and make it release the star. This belief partly explains the ambivalent image of the dog in ancient mythology: at once guardian and devourer. Today, an eclipse is explained by the geometry of the Sun, the Moon and the Earth: see lunar and solar eclipses.

A legendary ancestor. Among several peoples of southern China, such as the She and the Yao, a tradition traces the people’s descent from a mythical dog, Panhu. It is an origin story specific to these cultures, and it should be told with respect.

A lucky wordplay. The barking of a dog is written wāngwāng (汪汪), close to wàng (旺), “prosperous, flourishing”. So people often hear “旺旺旺” as a New Year wish in Dog years.

The so-called “dog statues”. The stone guardians in front of temples and palaces, which are sometimes called “Fo dogs” in the West, are in fact lions. The name comes from an old confusion and does not refer to the dog of the zodiac.

The five Dogs by element

In the sixty-year cycle, each animal successively receives each of the five elements. The portraits below are traditional symbolic nuances: they do not designate real personalities and are not universal.

Variant	Years (1924 to 2043)	Symbolic nuance
Wood Dog	1934, 1994	Sociable, generous and open; seeks harmony in the group but can wear itself out.
Fire Dog	1946, 2006	Warm, frank, sometimes impulsive; its loyalty takes on the air of passion.
Earth Dog	1958, 2018	Reliable, serious, attached to stability; can become overly cautious.
Metal Dog	1970, 2030	Upright, demanding, with a strong sense of principle; can be uncompromising.
Water Dog	1982, 2042	More intuitive and receptive, attentive to emotions; can be overwhelmed by worry.

Take the example of a Wood Dog year: the element of the year is Wood, while the animal’s own element is Earth. Some schools look at how the two respond to each other (production, control, harmony). These are frameworks for reading, not verdicts.

Traditional affinities of the Dog

Tradition compares the animals of two people by looking at their place on the circle of the twelve branches. For the Dog, here are the classic relationships.

Traditional relationship	Animals concerned	Image
Affinity trio (sanhe)	Dog, Tiger and Horse	Three animals four positions apart, often presented as sharing the same momentum
Union (liuhe, “six harmonies”)	Dog and Rabbit	A pair of animals associated by tradition, seen as complementary
Opposition (liuchong)	Dog and Dragon	Two animals six positions apart, facing each other on the circle: contrast, friction
Harm (liuhai)	Dog and Rooster	A link said to be “troublesome”: possible misunderstandings, according to tradition

These rules come from the theory of the branches and do not measure the value of a relationship: two people with “opposed” animals can get along very well, and two “united” animals can quarrel. Some sources add other relationships (“punishments”, “destructions”), which shows that these grids vary from school to school. Keep them as a set of mirrors, never as a verdict on a couple, a friendship or a hiring decision.

Going further: questions for reflection

If you were born under this sign, or simply want to understand the image it carries, here are some questions to ask yourself, without expecting a right answer.

• What seems unfair to me enough to make me react, and what can I do about it?
• Who is in my “circle of trust”, and have I thanked them?
• Which worry takes my energy without changing anything?
• Where can I trust the unknown, just a little?

Like all Chinese astrology, the portrait of the Dog is a symbolic tradition: without scientific proof, it predicts neither your character nor your future. For an overview, read the introduction to Chinese astrology.

Frequently asked questions

Also read

The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Chinese astrology.