The boundary the Gregorian calendar hides
A Chinese year opens at the second new moon after the December solstice. That fixes new year's day between 21 January and 20 February and shifts it by weeks from one year to the next. It was 27 January in 1990, 7 February in 2008, 10 February in 2024 and 17 February in 2026.
Western calculators generally cut the year at 1 January, which gives the following animal to everyone born inside that six week window. That is roughly one birthday in eight handed the wrong sign. The clearest illustration is a birth on 1 February 1988: called a Dragon by any Gregorian table, and in fact a Rabbit, since the 1988 new year did not begin until 17 February.
Beyond 20 February the two methods always agree, which is why the mistake persists unchallenged. The widget above computes the actual boundary for your year and then answers.
Which years are Dog years
The Dog comes every twelve years. Recent Dog years are 1982, 1994, 2006 and 2018, with 2030 next. Each begins at its own new year date and ends the day before the next one, so it never matches a Gregorian year.
Alongside the animals runs the cycle of five elements, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, each holding two consecutive years. Because the element cycle takes ten years and the animals twelve, a combination returns only every sixty years. 2018 was an Earth Dog year; 2006 was a Fire Dog. The element is normally spoken as part of the year's name, and traditional readings treat it as changing the account rather than decorating it.
That is why the traditional name of a year always pairs the two, and why an English article naming only the animal has told you less than it appears to.
The race, the polarity and the reading
The Dog is a yang animal. In the Great Race it was among the strongest swimmers and should have placed high, but the story says it stopped in the river to bathe and play in the clean water, arriving eleventh, second from last.
The tradition reads the sign in terms of principle. The Dog is described as loyal, fair-minded, protective of the people it has decided are its own and unwilling to let an injustice pass without saying so. The same account calls it anxious, suspicious of strangers and prone to worry over things it cannot change. Because the label covers everyone born in a whole year, this is a description of a cohort rather than of an individual, which is worth remembering before taking it personally.
Trines, the opposite, and western astrology
The Dog sits in a trine with the Tiger and the Horse, animals four places apart that the tradition reads as direct, driven and quick to defend one another. The opposite animal, six places along the cycle, is the Dragon, and that pairing is described as conscience against ambition. Any traditional verdict on a match also takes the elements of both years into account before it is treated as settled.
The last thing worth saying is that this is a different system from western astrology, not a translation of it. The animal comes from the year of birth in a lunisolar calendar; a western sign comes from the Sun's position on the day. Different clocks, different claims, nothing to reconcile. Holding both is fine, so long as neither is used as evidence for the other.
The trines are best understood as a rough sorting of temperament rather than a scoring system, and the tradition itself treats a contrary element as enough to change the reading.
Questions people ask about this
Which years are Dog years?
1994, 2006 and 2018 in recent memory, with 2030 next. Each begins at the lunisolar new year in January or February, so the start date differs by weeks between them.
What element was the 2018 Dog year?
Earth. The 2006 Dog year carried Fire, and the same animal and element pairing only returns after sixty years because the cycles are of different lengths.
Was someone born in mid-February 2018 a Dog?
Possibly. The 2018 year began at a new moon in the middle of February, so births earlier in that year belong to the preceding Rooster year and the boundary has to be computed.
Why did the Dog finish eleventh?
The legend says it swam well but stopped to bathe in the river, enjoying the water for long enough that only the Pig came in behind it.
Which animal is the Dog's opposite?
The Dragon, six places away in the cycle. The tradition reads opposites as friction of temperament, and adds the elements of both years before drawing any conclusion.
Does the Dog year say anything about my Sun sign?
No. The animal follows from the lunisolar year of birth and the Sun sign from the day, so the two are independent labels rather than two views of one thing.