From Human Behavior By Walter S. Hunter 1919 University of Chicago Press
"a spinal dog, e.g., is one whose spinal cord has been transected, or cut across, just below the mudulla, thus freeing the reflex activities controlled by the cord from the influence of the brain. In animals like the dog the reflex functions of the cord persist unimpaired by the operation. In the dog the scratch reflex has been most throughly studied (Sherrington)."