Year of the Dog
The Dog is the eleventh animal, the one that stopped to bathe in the river. The popular tradition reads it as loyal, honest and protective.
What the postcard says
The popular reading of a Dog year birth is faithfulness: a loyalty that does not waver, a strong sense of justice, and a protectiveness towards the people counted as one's own. Dogs are read as honest, straightforward and dependable, the ones who will tell you the truth and stand beside you afterwards.
The honest shadow in the same tradition is the Dog's anxiety: a worry that expects the worst, a stubbornness in argument, and a sharpness of judgement that can turn into cynicism. The tradition says the guard dog does not sleep well.
The years, the hours and the month
Every twelfth year is a Dog year, but not the same Dog: the year's stem changes each time, so the Dog years are 1946 (Yang Fire), 1958 (Yang Earth), 1970 (Yang Metal), 1982 (Yang Water), 1994 (Yang Wood), 2006 (Yang Fire), 2018 (Yang Earth) and 2030 (Yang Metal). The year turns at Li Chun, around 4 February, not on 1 January and not at the new moon festival, so a January birth belongs to the year before. The branch also rules two hours of every day, 19:00 to 21:00, and one month of every year.
Inside a Four Pillars chart the Dog is the branch Xu, whose element is Earth and whose hidden stems are Yang Earth, Yin Metal and Yin Fire. It rules the two hours after seven in the evening and the last month of autumn. In a chart it reads as dry Earth holding Fire and Metal, the kiln; the animal name says none of that, and the element does.
The year animal is the postcard; your day master is the reading
Two people born in 2006 and 2018 are both Dogs, and the tradition reads them differently before it reads them alike.
The animal is the branch of the year pillar, one of eight characters in a Four Pillars chart, and the tradition reads it last. It reads the day master first: the stem of the day of birth, which is the self the rest of the chart is weighed against, and which the year animal says nothing about. Two Dogs twelve years apart share a branch and differ in their year's element, Yang Fire against Yang Earth, and differ in every other pillar; the postcard is true, and it is the smallest true thing on the card.
We calculate the whole chart, so the animal is the first thing you see and the day master is the second, and the reading is built on the second. The ten day masters have their own pages in this library, and the calculator says which one is yours.
About 60 seconds · the pillars need your date, time and place · the year animal is the first thing you will see
Questions people ask
Which years are the Dog?
1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 and 2030, each beginning at Li Chun, around 4 February, and each with a different element: 1982 (Yang Water), 1994 (Yang Wood), 2006 (Yang Fire), 2018 (Yang Earth) and 2030 (Yang Metal). The calculator works the year out from the date rather than from the year number, so a January birth is placed correctly.
Is the Dog compatible with the Tiger and the Horse?
The popular tradition groups the Dog with the Tiger and the Horse, the three branches four apart, and calls the grouping harmonious. That is the postcard's compatibility, two characters out of the sixteen a real pair comparison reads, and it says nothing about the day masters the tradition actually compares. The two-person report reads both charts in full.
I was born in January or February. Which animal am I?
The year turns at Li Chun, around 4 February, so a birth before it belongs to the year before, whatever the calendar says. In some years the festival falls before Li Chun and in some after, which is why two sources can disagree; the pillars follow the solar term, and so does the calculator.
We read charts for pattern and coherence, not prediction. Nothing here tells you what will happen, and nothing here tells you who you are; it shows a structure and leaves the judgement with you.