Year of the Dog in the Chinese Zodiac: Verified Dates, Elements, and Cycle

By Astrolivo editorial team

In the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the Dog is the eleventh of the twelve zodiac animals, corresponding to the Earthly Branch Xu (戌), which follows the Rooster and precedes the Pig. Because each lunar year begins on Lunar New Year rather than January 1, the start of a Dog year falls between late January and mid-February, and the year continues into the early weeks of the following Gregorian year.

In the verified Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables provided on this page, the Year of the Dog includes 1946 (February 2, 1946 to January 21, 1947), 1982 (January 25, 1982 to February 12, 1983), 1994 (February 10, 1994 to January 30, 1995), 2006 (January 29, 2006 to February 17, 2007), and 2018 (February 16, 2018 to February 4, 2019). These five entries are verified examples from our calendar dataset, not an exhaustive list of every Dog year.

Verified Example Dog Years and Exact Date Boundaries

The table below presents only the Dog years verified in our Hong Kong Observatory dataset. It is non-exhaustive: because the twelve-animal cycle repeats continuously, other Dog years exist in the decades between 1946 and 1982, as well as before 1946 and after 2018.

How to Check Whether a January or February Birth Date Is a Dog Year

Because the lunar year boundary moves between January and February, looking only at a four-digit birth year can misidentify births near the start of the Gregorian calendar. Use the Start Date and End Date columns above to verify any date in a listed year:

1. Born in January or February before Lunar New Year: A birth date before the listed Start Date belongs to the preceding Year of the Rooster. For example, in a hypothetical case where someone is born on February 3, 1994, the 1994 Jia-xu Wood Dog year had not yet started (Lunar New Year fell on February 10, 1994). Under the civil lunar calendar, February 3, 1994 belongs to the 1993 Gui-you Water Rooster year, which ran from January 23, 1993 through February 9, 1994.
2. Born on or after Lunar New Year through December 31: If a hypothetical birth date is February 10, 1994, it lands on Lunar New Year's Day and belongs to the Jia-xu Wood Dog year.
3. Born in January or February of the following Gregorian year: Each Dog year remains in effect until the eve of the next Pig Lunar New Year. For instance, if a hypothetical person is born on February 10, 2007, that date falls before the 2007 Ding-hai Fire Pig Lunar New Year (February 18, 2007). Because the 2006 Bing-xu Fire Dog year ran from January 29, 2006 through February 17, 2007, a birthday on February 10, 2007 belongs to the Year of the Dog.

To view the source header and exact conversion details for a specific year, follow its year detail link in the table—1946, 1982, 1994, 2006, or 2018—or visit the Chinese zodiac overview.

The Dog in the 12-Year Animal Sequence and 60-Year Stem-Branch Cycle

In the standard twelve-animal order (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep/Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig), the Dog occupies the eleventh position:

• 10th position: Rooster (You)
• 11th position: Dog (Xu)
• 12th position: Pig (Hai)

In the traditional Chinese sexagenary system, the ten Heavenly Stems (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) pair in sequence with the twelve Earthly Branches to form sixty distinct year names, repeating every sixty years from the Jia-Zi anchor (such as the cycle starting February 2, 1984).

Because Xu is the eleventh branch (an odd position), it pairs with the five odd-numbered stems (Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, Ren). Under the five-element (Wu Xing) stem mapping—Jia/Yi Wood, Bing/Ding Fire, Wu/Ji Earth, Geng/Xin Metal, and Ren/Gui Water—our verified Dog table demonstrates both the twelve-year element rotation and the exact sixty-year stem-branch return:

• 1946 (Bing-xu) and 2006 (Bing-xu): Separated by exactly sixty years, both 1946 and 2006 pair the stem Bing (Fire) with the branch Xu (Dog), producing two verified Fire Dog years.
• 1982 (Ren-xu): The ninth stem Ren maps to Water, designating 1982 a Water Dog year.
• 1994 (Jia-xu): Twelve years after 1982, the sequence wraps around to the first stem Jia (Wood), making 1994 a Wood Dog year.
• 2018 (Wu-xu): Twelve years after the 2006 Bing-xu Fire Dog year, the stem advances to Wu (Earth), making 2018 an Earth Dog year.

In the full sixty-year cycle, the seventh stem Geng (Metal) also pairs with Xu to form a Metal Dog year (Geng-xu, which falls twelve years before 1982), although that year is not included in the verified table excerpt on this page.

Cultural Context and Interpretive Limits

According to museum scholarship from the Victoria and Albert Museum, visual and textual representations of the twelve zodiac animals appear in Han-period historical sources and Tang-dynasty tomb figures. Curatorial research distinguishes this ancient calendar-naming system from later popular traditions that treat birth-year animals as personality profiles, and notes that the popular race story explaining the animal order is folklore rather than history.

When consulting this page, keep three boundaries in mind:

1. Civil Lunar New Year vs. Four Pillars (BaZi): The dates listed here represent the civil lunar calendar published by the Hong Kong Observatory, where the animal changes on Lunar New Year. In traditional Four Pillars (BaZi) calculations—which construct four pillars from the year, month, day, and birth hour—the annual boundary is governed by the solar term Li Chun (Start of Spring) rather than Lunar New Year. A civil year-animal table does not perform a Four Pillars reading.
2. Lunisolar Calendar vs. Western Tropical Astrology: The Chinese zodiac identifies lunisolar years and stem-branch cycles, whereas Western astrology calculates planetary positions in tropical zodiac signs and Placidus houses from an exact date, time, and latitude/longitude of birth.
3. Interpretive Tradition, Not Empirical Prediction: Symbolic calendar classifications do not measure personality traits, predict specific life events, establish relationship compatibility scores, or offer medical, legal, or financial advice. This page documents verified calendar dates and stem-element designations without fabricated traits or horoscope forecasts.

Methodology and Sources

Exact Lunar New Year start dates, year-end dates, and stem-branch headers (Bing-xu, Ren-xu, Jia-xu, and Wu-xu) are taken from the official Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables (T1946e.txt through T1947e.txt, T1982e.txt through T1983e.txt, T1994e.txt through T1995e.txt, T2006e.txt through T2007e.txt, and T2018e.txt through T2019e.txt) and HKO's Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches documentation anchored on 1984 (Jia-Zi). The five-element correspondence of the Heavenly Stems is independently verified in Yoo and Yoon (2019, Journal of Korean Medical Classics, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017, abstract), used strictly for cultural calendar naming without importing medical theories or personality claims. Historical and astronomical context is drawn from the Victoria and Albert Museum (The Lunar Zodiac, updated April 17, 2024) and Royal Museums Greenwich.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do both 1946 and 2006 have the exact same name, Bing-xu (Fire Dog)?

The Chinese calendar combines ten Heavenly Stems with twelve Earthly Branches, creating a cycle that repeats every 60 years. Because 2006 is exactly 60 years after 1946, both years share the identical stem-branch designation (Bing-xu, Fire Dog), even though their Gregorian Lunar New Year dates differ (February 2, 1946 vs. January 29, 2006).

If I was born in January 1982, am I a Dog or a Rooster?

It depends on the exact day in January. In 1982, Lunar New Year fell on January 25, 1982. If you were born between January 1, 1982 and January 24, 1982, your birth date falls in the 1981 Metal Rooster year (Xin-you). If you were born on or after January 25, 1982 (through February 12, 1983), your birth date belongs to the 1982 Water Dog year (Ren-xu).

Why are years like 1958 or 1970 not listed in the table?

The table on this page includes only the specific calendar conversion rows verified in our current Hong Kong Observatory dataset (1946, 1982, 1994, 2006, and 2018). Because the twelve-animal cycle repeats continuously every twelve years, Dog years also occur in 1958 and 1970 between our 1946 and 1982 entries.

Which animals come immediately before and after the Dog?

The tenth animal right before the Dog is the Rooster, and the twelfth (final) animal right after the Dog is the Pig. You can review all twelve animals and calendar rules on the Chinese zodiac hub.