The Dog

Who is a Dog?

Years: 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006.
Month*: October
Hour: 19.00-21.00
* Caution: the start of the Chinese month can be as early as the 4th & as late as the 9th, depending on the year. I can let you know this too.

What is a Dog?
The Dog is yang earth and a byword for good faith and consistency. Terriers and Rotweilers are both fierce as well as loyal. In mediaeval heraldry and Renaissance painting, the greyhound symbolises constancy.
So a Dog can be expected to revere tradition and have a strong family background. If a Dog commits to something they can generally be relied upon to see it to completion. The difference between male and female Dogs can be that the female gets the message quicker. Interesting to note that Kate Middleton and Prince William are twin Water Dogs of 1982; a very solid match because as a yang earth sign, the Dog is pretty immovable, an ideal best friend or protector. These two are first and foremost, good friends.
The Dog’s thinking may not always be flexible but when he gets an idea, he really gets it. His natural grouping is with the hunters, the Horse and Tiger. The apportionment of tasks here is obvious: the Horse provides pace and the Tiger ferocity while the Dog watches the rear. If hr people studied Chinese metaphysics, more workplaces would zing: in business the Horse will tend to be the sales person, the Tiger the closer or credit controller and the Dog the provider of after-sales service or er…hr department.
The Dog excels at service because he never gives up. He will return your phone calls and keep that appointment. He’s the friend who sends a card every birthday and the spouse who remembers every anniversary.
The Dog perhaps surprisingly, also mixes well with the gentle diplomatic Rabbit. The Rabbit schmoozes while the Dog ensures that his openness is not abused. The Dog makes a wonderful bodyguard and middle manager. A Dog employer will have achieved that position by sheer hard work and will demand the same from all around.
The Dog doesn’t like the Dragon because he’s such a smarty pants. Also the Dog hates success without effort and the Dragon creates with such apparent ease. The Snake too; he’d resent the Horse except that he is scrupulously loyal to his own team.
An unbalanced Dog is a bit of a shop steward. He knows his rights and the way things should be – often the way they always have been. An unbalanced Dog (such as one with an October or mid-evening birth) is just too respectful.
The Dog will often have a strong spiritual agenda and if he has a blind spot it may be an inability to tell the difference between religion and spirituality or spirituality and therapy. Because this means he sticks to his guns, the Dog is suited both to new age therapy and religious persecution. He will not be thrown off by the opinions of others once he has committed to a line of action. In fact the unbalanced Dog can be thick skinned in matters of belief; this Dog would be ideally suited to being a Grand Inquisitor. The problem is that his motto ought to be “Do as you would be done by,” and he thinks it already is.
The Dog can work well with other Dogs and with the Pig. With the Pig he shares a love of home and team and they are so different they don’t crowd each other. Sometimes the Dog and Pig can be telepathically close; this is because they are adjacent signs in the calendar linked by the yang earth that is a feature of both. Sometimes this earth is expressed by banter or earthy humour. They can have a lot of fun together while getting the job done.
But the most powerful and most demanding role the Dog can play is in a creative team including the irritating Dragon, the autocratic Ox and the soft Sheep. If the Dog acts as conscience and bookkeeper, the Ox will relax, the Sheep toughen up and the Dragon acknowledge someone else for a change. If you are a Dog recruiting for non-executive directors take note. What is great about the Dog is that if he finds advice that works he will adopt it as if it were religion. Bless.

The Dog: Outlook for 2011
In 2011 the ashram or the extended workshop may call. The Rabbit year is a very special one for you. It is a year in which those lower down the food chain reach out to you for help. This is a chance to feed your soul. You may already feel the need for time alone perhaps to study, perhaps to catch up with yourself but the future could, as 1934 Wood Dog Leonard Cohen suggested, be murder. He may feel this pull more than most as it was only to balance the books that he quit a monastery to tour in 2010.
This year of course you get your way (as ever) but by way of the compliance of people less influential than yourself. The Dog is consistent, loyal, faithful and stubborn as hell and can be very bossy, as you know. This year however, you are offered the chance to learn the difference between being commanding and being punitive, a distinction which may have foxed you till now. There are people out there hurting that only you can help. Don’t blackmail but give your assistance this year without demanding anyone subscribes to your values. Encourage disagreement. If you can get a Dragon, a Sheep and an Ox behind your current project, you can not fail. In relationship behave yourself. And remember: if you are alert your assets will grow. Breakthroughs may loom in February and June. Most Dogs love warmth; take a good long holiday this year in June in July.
This is a demanding year for the Dog. The Tiger lulled you into a false sense of safety, the Rabbit demands you stretch to your full stature. This may sound risky. It is. But the grasped nettle doesn’t sting.