Dog is 戌, the storehouse of autumn. Its image is preserving what a season has produced and judged worth keeping. The reading focuses on loyalty, protection and the responsibilities that accompany them.
At work
Asking who bears the consequences of a failure can improve a plan. If you identify a risk, clarify who is responsible for addressing it before silently taking that responsibility on yourself.
With people
Loyalty includes how commitments are understood and repaired. If someone has let you down, explain what changed and what you need rather than expecting them to infer it.
Dog compatibility
Tiger and Horse complete the Fire triad with Dog, joining initiative and movement with continuity. Rabbit is the six-harmony partner, bringing tact to a reading concerned with commitments and protection.
Where the strength turns over
Care can become resentment when effort is repeatedly given without discussing what is needed in return. Before treating the relationship as a private ledger, make the expectations open to both people.
How Korean saju reads this branch
Dog is 戌, a storehouse branch containing Metal, Fire and Earth: autumn’s standard, retained warmth and the ground keeping both. It also belongs to a punishment group with Ox and Goat, three storehouse branches holding different seasonal images. 戌 corresponds to the ninth solar month, roughly October, the west-northwest, and the hours from seven to nine in the evening. The image is of putting things away and checking what needs protection. A repeated branch is interpreted with the rest of the chart.
Are you actually this sign?
In this Korean saju calculation, the year begins at ipchun (立春), around February 4. A birth before that boundary in a Dog calendar year belongs to the preceding Rooster year. Check the exact time near the boundary.
Dog years
- 1946 Fire Dog
- 1958 Earth Dog
- 1970 Metal Dog
- 1982 Water Dog
- 1994 Wood Dog
- 2006 Fire Dog
- 2018 Earth Dog
- 2030 Metal Dog
The animal comes back every twelve years and the element in front of it every sixty. That pairing is what people mean by a Water Dog or a Fire Dog — same branch, a different stem sitting over it. Each of these years starts at ipchun in early February, not at Lunar New Year.
Discuss responsibilities and limits before an unspoken expectation becomes a source of resentment.