Novelist that is associated with small dogs (8)
I believe the answer is:
scotties
'dogs' is the definition.
(Scottie is an example)
'novelist that is associated with small' is the wordplay.
'novelist' becomes 'scott' (I have seen 'old novelist' mean 'scott' so perhaps 'novelist' could also mean 'scott').
'that is' becomes 'ie' (short for Latin 'id est', 'that is').
'associated with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'scott'+'ie'+'s'='SCOTTIES'
(Another definition for scotties that I've seen is " Dogs".)