Dog Chinese Zodiac Compatibility

The Dog of the Chinese zodiac is a birth-year animal, the eleventh of the twelve-year cycle. This page reads it against all twelve, the Dog included, by the tradition's three relations: trine, secret friend and clash. To pair the Dog with any other animal, go to the Chinese zodiac compatibility hub. The table further down is the whole answer.

Which years are Dog years?

Dog years start at the lunar new year, not on 1 January. The Chinese year turns on a date between 21 January and 20 February that moves every year, so a birthday in January or early February can belong to the animal before the Dog. Not sure you are a Dog? The page on which animal is your birth year lists the date each year begins.

Who is the Dog's best match?

The Dog's two easiest matches share its trine, one of four groups of three animals the tradition calls San He. Inside a trine nobody is ranked, so neither partner comes first. Readers who ask for the Dog's "soulmate" get the same answer here, because the tradition names no single soulmate: it names two trine partners and a secret friend.

Who is the Dog's secret friend?

The Dog's secret friend is the Rabbit: together they make one of the six harmony pairs the tradition calls secret friends. Liu He, the Chinese name for the six pairs, is a fixed list rather than a spacing rule, because the pairs sit at different distances on the cycle. The site's ladder puts a secret friend one step below a trine.

Who is the Dog not compatible with?

The Dragon is the Dog's clash, the animal directly opposite it on the twelve-year cycle and six years away, which the tradition reads as its most difficult match. Liu Chong, the Chinese name for the six opposite pairs, is the only negative relation this page reads, so this is the one difficult animal it names for the Dog. The tradition rates that pairing; it does not rule it out.

How compatible is the Dog with each animal?

The table groups the Dog's eleven partners by relation, best first and the clash last, with the neutral rows in between. A neutral row means the tradition names no relation for that pair, which is neither praise nor a caution. The relations follow the lists in Wikipedia's Chinese zodiac article and on yourchineseastrology.com, which agree on every pair. Two Dog pairings have pages of their own, linked from their rows once live.

Is Dog and Dog a good match?

Two Dogs are their own relation here, the same animal. The one reference that rules on same-animal pairs, yourchineseastrology.com, reads most of them as compatible, the Dog included. Two people share an animal when their Chinese birth years are the same or a multiple of twelve apart.

Who should a Dog marry?

For marriage the tradition reads the same three relations, so the Dog's best matches are still the Tiger, the Horse and the Rabbit; nothing in it forbids any pairing. The reading takes two birth years and nothing else, so the answer for a Dog woman is the same as for a Dog man. Chinese astrology also gives each year an element, and this reading leaves it out. Who marries whom stays a decision for two people; the tradition only says which pairings it reads as easiest.

Which animals are the Dog's best friends?

The Dog's best friends in the tradition are the same animals as its best matches in love, because one set of relations covers both. The secret friend carries the tradition's own word for it, and the trine partners stand beside it. Any other friendship is a row in the table above.

Why do other charts list different matches for the Dog?

For the Dog, most charts agree with this page on its best matches and on its clash. This page reads three relations only. Charts that list more difficult matches for the Dog usually add the tradition's harms and punishments, or describe personalities, and neither is part of this reading. A pairing this page calls neutral can be a harm pair on a fuller chart.

To read the Dog against one other animal, pick both on the hub. The full chart of every pairing sits in the strip at the top of this page.