Year of the Dog: Personality, Compatibility & Lucky Traits

The Dog is the eleventh sign of the Chinese zodiac — loyal, honest, and warm-hearted. If you were born in a Dog year, here's what your sign is said to reveal about your personality, love life, and career.

Which years are the Year of the Dog?

Recent Dog years include 1982, 1994, 2006, and 2018, with the next in 2030. Because the Chinese year begins at Lunar New Year, those born in January or early February should check the rollover — you may belong to the previous sign, the Rooster.

Dog personality and traits

• Loyal, faithful, and trustworthy.
• Honest and strong on fairness and justice.
• Kind, protective, and dependable.
• Down-to-earth and genuinely caring.

Dogs can also be anxious, pessimistic, and slow to trust until someone has earned it.

Dog love and compatibility

The Dog's best matches are the Tiger, Rabbit, and Horse, who return the Dog's loyalty and warmth. The classic clash is with the Dragon, whose pride can rub against the Dog's honesty. In love, Dogs are devoted, protective, and steadfast.

Dog careers

Principled and caring, Dogs thrive in law, activism, medicine, teaching, and service roles where loyalty, fairness, and helping others matter.

For the full system — the five elements and the lunar-new-year rule — see our Chinese zodiac guide, and your complete reading calculates your animal, element, and yin/yang.