11 of 12 · branch Xu (戌) · element Earth · last Dog year 2018
戌时 is dusk, the hour when the household dog is on watch. The Dog is the cycle’s guardian and is placed last among the animals that were chosen for the calendar, in versions of the story because it stopped to help someone on the way. It stands for loyalty given without a price.
The branch repeats every twelve years, but the stem in front of it moves by two each time, so the element cycles through all five. That is why two Dog years can feel quite different.
The table above treats a whole Gregorian year as one animal, which is true for most of it. January and early February are the exception: the zodiac turns at the Start of Spring (around 4 February, exact to the minute) in divination, and at the lunar new year in festival usage. Between those two dates the animal is still the previous one.
Pick the exact date in the zodiac lookup, or open this year’s New Year date to see where the line falls.