Year of the Dog: Meaning and Personality
Find your Chinese zodiac animal, element and yin-yang polarity — with the Lunar New Year boundary handled correctly.
Dog
Loyal, fair and fiercely protective, the Dog is the friend people call at 3 a.m. Its challenge is worrying less about everything it guards.
About this tool
Recent Years of the Dog are 2006, 2018 and 2030, with the next due in 2042. Don't skip the boundary check: the Chinese year begins at the Lunar New Year, between late January and late February, so a birth in those first weeks of a Dog year may belong to the previous sign, the Rooster.
Tradition calls the Dog the most loyal sign of the twelve: fair, protective and dependable — the friend people call at three in the morning. Its lesson is worrying less about everything it guards. The element of the year colors the loyalty, from the grounded Earth Dog to the spirited Fire Dog.
For the full picture, use the calculator behind this page: any birth date in, complete sign out — animal, element and yin-yang polarity, checked against exact Lunar New Year dates from 1924 to 2043, locally in your browser.
Example. 2000-02-05 is a yang Metal Dragon, while 2000-02-04 is still a yin Earth Rabbit.
Limit. Exact Lunar New Year dates are tabulated only from 1924 through 2043; years outside that range fall back to the calendar year.