Year of the Dog: Birth Years, Ages and Sign Relations

Compiled by Haiyuan · AI-generated content · Updated 2026-10-12 · How we calculate

If you were born in a Year of the Dog, the earthly branch of your birth year is Xu (戌). It comes round every 12 years; the most recent were 1994, 2006, 2018 and 2030. Below: every Dog year with its year pillar, na yin, your age in 2026, and the date the sign actually changes each year.

How does today look for the Dog? See the Dog daily and weekly horoscope (calculated live for today in Taiwan) →

Year of the Dog: every year from 1924 to 2043

Ages here are the age you reach on your birthday in 2026. In Taiwan and much of East Asia people also use "virtual age" (xu sui), where you are 1 at birth and add a year at each Lunar New Year, so it runs one or two years higher. Start of Spring times are Taiwan time (UTC+8).

Pay attention if you were born between late January and mid-February. BaZi changes the year at the Start of Spring (Li Chun), while popular custom, and most zodiac websites, change it at Lunar New Year. Between 1924 and 2043, Lunar New Year fell up to 14 days before the Start of Spring and up to 16 days after it. Born after the Start of Spring but before Lunar New Year in one of the years above, you are a Dog by BaZi but still the previous sign by popular reckoning; the reverse can happen too. The lookup below settles it from your birthday.

The Dog's branch at a glance

Earthly branches label years, months and two-hour periods alike. Being "a Dog" only refers to the branch of your year pillar. Someone born in a Xu month or a Xu hour also has Xu in their chart, but their zodiac sign is not the Dog.

How the Dog relates to the other signs

Classical texts sort the relations between branches into combinations (attraction, joining forces) and clashes, punishments, harms and breaks (friction and wear). Popular "zodiac compatibility" comes straight from this: trines and Six Combinations are said to get along, clashes are said to collide. But that compares only the year branches of two people, and a BaZi chart has eight characters. Our compatibility guide reads how two whole charts interact and never calls a couple incompatible because their signs clash.

The Dog and each of the other 11 signs

The table below sets the Dog against each of the other eleven signs. One thing first: the year branch is only one character of a BaZi chart. Whether two signs "match" compares one character from each chart; how two people actually get along depends on the Day Masters, the favorable elements and how the whole charts interact. The same pair of signs can be a great match or a poor one.

To compare two whole charts, enter both birthdays in the compatibility tool. It reads the Day Pillars, favorable elements and Ten Gods, not just the signs. The ideas behind it are in compatibility.

The Dog and Tai Sui in 2026 and 2027

Tai Sui is the branch of the current year. For the full 2027 reading for the Dog, see Dog in 2027; for what offending Tai Sui means and its five forms, see offending Tai Sui. For when people in Taiwan register with Tai Sui and light lamps, see 2027 Tai Sui registration dates; for wedding and work-start dates in 2027, see 2027 wedding dates and the 2027 Lunar New Year calendar.

The popular image of the Dog

Folk wisdom says people born in the Year of the Dog are loyal, principled and true to their word. It grew out of the animal's image and is fun as an association, but in BaZi personality is read mainly from the Day Master, the heavenly stem of your birth day; see the ten Day Masters.

Three common misconceptions

The other signs