Traditional ally

Rabbit and Dog

Traditional ally

88%

No traditional aspect between these signs — neither reinforced nor opposed. What happens depends on the people rather than the pattern.

Wood · Yin

Rabbit

Brings. Keeps the peace intelligently and notices what everyone needs before it is said.

Struggles with. Avoids confrontation past the point of usefulness, and withdraws instead of arguing.

Earth · Yang

Dog

Brings. Reliable to a fault and genuinely fair. The one who notices an injustice first.

Struggles with. Worries constantly, and judges harshly once trust is broken.

Distance on the wheel5 of 12
RelationTraditional ally
Same fixed elementNo

How Chinese compatibility works

The rule is positional. Animals four apart form an affinity triangle and are read as natural allies — they share instincts and pace. Animals six apart sit directly opposite and are the traditional clash: each values what the other neglects.

This differs from Western astrology, which uses angles on a 360-degree circle. Here the wheel has twelve positions and the relationships are counted in steps, not degrees.

Traditional pairings sometimes override the geometry — a few combinations are named explicitly as friends or enemies in the old texts, and those take precedence.

The full 144-pair grid →

Computed from 110 years of real lunar new year dates

The arithmetic behind this pairing

Chinese years run 354 or 384 days, so each animal collects a different number of days across the century — the shares below are not 8.33% each.

Positions apart on the cycle 5
Pairings at this distance 12 of 78
Days assigned to Rabbit 3,278 · 8.23%
Days assigned to Dog 3,251 · 8.17%
Share of all pairings 1.345%

5 positions apart · 12 of 78 pairings share that distance · 1.345% of all pairings. Neither trine nor clash, where most pairings sit.

Possible age gaps — fixed by the cycle

Because the animals sit at fixed positions, two people with these signs can only differ in age by certain numbers of years. Not approximately — exactly these:

5 years apart
7 years apart
17 years apart
19 years apart
29 years apart
31 years apart
41 years apart
43 years apart

Recent birth-year combinations

Water Rabbit 2023 & Earth Dog 2018 5 years apart
Water Rabbit 2023 & Metal Dog 2030 7 years apart
Metal Rabbit 2011 & Fire Dog 2006 5 years apart
Metal Rabbit 2011 & Earth Dog 2018 7 years apart
Earth Rabbit 1999 & Wood Dog 1994 5 years apart
Earth Rabbit 1999 & Fire Dog 2006 7 years apart
Fire Rabbit 1987 & Water Dog 1982 5 years apart
Fire Rabbit 1987 & Wood Dog 1994 7 years apart

The five versions of each animal

The animal repeats every 12 years but the element every 60, so each partner comes in five variants — and the combination you actually have is one of 25.

Fire Rabbit 1987
Earth Rabbit 1999
Metal Rabbit 2011
Water Rabbit 2023
Wood Rabbit 1975
Wood Dog 1994
Fire Dog 2006
Earth Dog 2018
Metal Dog 2030
Water Dog 1982

Birth years for this pairing

⚠️ Each year starts at the lunar new year, not 1 January — if either of you was born in January or early February, check the exact date before trusting the animal.

Rabbit

1963 · 1975 · 1987 · 1999 · 2011 · 2023

Dog

1970 · 1982 · 1994 · 2006 · 2018 · 2030