The tables
Why the pair is rated this way
The Rat and the Dog are two steps apart on the circle of twelve, both yang. They are not a harmony, a trine, a clash or a harm pair, so the classical tables call the pair neutral: nothing special pulls them together or apart.
The Dog is an earth sign and the Rat a water sign. In the controlling cycle earth dams water, so the Dog is read as the one who sets limits and the Rat as the one who pushes against them.
The Rat rules the winter month that starts around Dec 7 and the hours from 11 pm to 1 am; the Dog rules the autumn month that starts around Oct 8 and the hours from 7 pm to 9 pm.
For comparison, the Rat's harmony partner is the Ox and its trine partners are the Monkey and the Dragon; the Dog's harmony partner is the Rabbit and its trine partners are the Tiger and the Horse.
Reading
In love, friendship and work
Traditionally the Rat is quick-witted, resourceful and careful with money, and the Dog is loyal, honest and protective. The Rat tends to bring sharp planning and look for security; the Dog tends to bring faithfulness and look for fairness.
In love, the zodiac neither helps nor blocks this pair, so the rest of each chart, and the two people, decide how it goes.
As friends or co-workers they tend to keep each other in check, which can sharpen the work as long as neither tries to run the other.
Years
Which years are these animals?
Rat years: 1948 (Earth Rat), 1960 (Metal Rat), 1972 (Water Rat), 1984 (Wood Rat), 1996 (Fire Rat), 2008 (Earth Rat), 2020 (Metal Rat).
Dog years: 1958 (Earth Dog), 1970 (Metal Dog), 1982 (Water Dog), 1994 (Wood Dog), 2006 (Fire Dog), 2018 (Earth Dog), 2030 (Metal Dog).
9 of the idols with a Bias Match idol page were born in Rat years.
11 of the idols with a Bias Match idol page were born in Dog years.
Your pair
Check two birth years
A zodiac year starts in late January or February, not on January 1: Chinese New Year calendars switch at Lunar New Year, and saju switches at Lichun, around February 4. If you were born in January or early February, you may belong to the year before.
Beyond the birth year
On Bias Match the animal that counts most is not the birth year but the day branch, the animal in each person's day pillar. If two people's day branches are Rat (子) and Dog (戌), the compatibility calculator scores that check as zero, neither plus nor minus, next to five other checks.
The text is fixed sentence templates filled in with the classical relation tables built into the Bias Match engine; no AI model generates or rewrites it. For entertainment only: the zodiac describes old patterns, not what will happen between two people.