Year of the Dog 戌
⚠ The saju year turns at ipchun, around 4 February — not 1 January, and not Lunar New Year. Born in January or the first days of February? Your branch is the previous animal.
Warm dry earth holding fire — the guard branch. The Dog reads as loyalty and a strongly held sense of what is right. Trustworthy to a fault, and quick to judge a situation before all of it has arrived.
The Dog in 2027, the Fire Goat year ›
Dog compatibility, by the actual rules
Popular compatibility charts rarely say why. These come from two rule sets in the system — the harmony bindings (six harmony, three harmony) and the friction relations (clash, harm, destruction) — applied to your branch against all twelve. Everything below is computed, not written to fit.
Harmony
You and the Tiger belong to the same three-branch group, which together produce one element. Read as a shared direction: you tend to want the same things.
Your branch and the Rabbit bind directly — the classic pairing, read as easy mutual fit that settles rather than sparks.
You and the Horse belong to the same three-branch group, which together produce one element. Read as a shared direction: you tend to want the same things.
Friction
You sit directly opposite the Dragon on the cycle. Read as friction and movement — not doom, but a pairing that will not sit still.
A minor breaking pattern with the Goat: something gets cracked and rebuilt. The mildest of the friction relations, and often the most productive.
A subtle mismatch with the Rooster — the traditional reading is crossed wires rather than open conflict, the kind that shows up in timing and tone.
Everything else
No harmony or clash rule connects your branch to the Rat. Traditionally that is read as neutral — the pairing is decided by the rest of both charts, not by the animals.
No harmony or clash rule connects your branch to the Ox. Traditionally that is read as neutral — the pairing is decided by the rest of both charts, not by the animals.
No harmony or clash rule connects your branch to the Snake. Traditionally that is read as neutral — the pairing is decided by the rest of both charts, not by the animals.
No harmony or clash rule connects your branch to the Monkey. Traditionally that is read as neutral — the pairing is decided by the rest of both charts, not by the animals.
The same branch as yours. Two of the same energy recognise each other instantly — and compete for the same ground just as fast.
No harmony or clash rule connects your branch to the Pig. Traditionally that is read as neutral — the pairing is decided by the rest of both charts, not by the animals.
The five day pillars seated on the Dog
Your day branch says far more than your year branch. If you were born on a Dog day, one of these is your day pillar.
Frequently asked
Which years are Dog years?
1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030 and every twelfth year before and after. One warning that matters: the saju year turns at ipchun, around 4 February — not on 1 January and not at Lunar New Year. If you were born in January or the first days of February, your branch is the previous animal.
What is the Dog compatible with?
By the branch rules: Tiger (Three Harmony), Rabbit (Six Harmony), Horse (Three Harmony). Friction relations run to Dragon (Clash), Goat (Destruction), Rooster (Harm). These describe one character out of the eight in each person's chart, so treat them as a first note rather than a verdict.
Does being a Dog tell me my personality?
Only thinly. Your animal is your year branch — one of eight characters, shared with roughly a twelfth of everyone alive. The character that stands for you is the top of your day pillar, and it changes every single day. That is where a real reading starts.
Is the Korean zodiac different from the Chinese one?
Same twelve animals in the same order — Korea keeps the Rabbit where Vietnam uses the Cat. In Korean the Dog is the 개 (戌), romanised Xu in Mandarin. What differs between the traditions is the reading culture, not the cycle.
Branch relations are computed from the Ioreum engine’s harmony and clash tables (ruleset ioreum-2026.07) — the same tables our compatibility score uses. The character readings are interpretation from tradition, not verified science.