Water · Yang
Rat
Brings. Spots an opening before anyone else and moves on it. Rarely caught unprepared.
Struggles with. Hoards — money, information, contacts — and can be quietly opportunistic about people.
Sextile — easy
Rat and Dog
Sextile — easy
78%
Two apart. Comfortable and cooperative without being identical.
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 wheel2 of 12
RelationSextile — easy
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.
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
2
Pairings at this distance
12 of 78
Days assigned to Rat
3,661 · 9.2%
Days assigned to Dog
3,251 · 8.17%
Share of all pairings
1.503%
2 positions apart · 12 of 78 pairings share that distance · 1.503% 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:
2
years apart
10
years apart
14
years apart
22
years apart
26
years apart
34
years apart
38
years apart
46
years apart
Recent birth-year combinations
Water Rat 2032 & Metal Dog 2030
2 years apart
Metal Rat 2020 & Earth Dog 2018
2 years apart
Metal Rat 2020 & Metal Dog 2030
10 years apart
Earth Rat 2008 & Fire Dog 2006
2 years apart
Earth Rat 2008 & Earth Dog 2018
10 years apart
Fire Rat 1996 & Wood Dog 1994
2 years apart
Fire Rat 1996 & Fire Dog 2006
10 years apart
Wood Rat 1984 & Water Dog 1982
2 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.
Wood Rat
1984
Fire Rat
1996
Earth Rat
2008
Metal Rat
2020
Water Rat
2032
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.
Rat
1972 · 1984 · 1996 · 2008 · 2020 · 2032Dog
1970 · 1982 · 1994 · 2006 · 2018 · 2030