diff --git a/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java b/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java
index 607f3fd3e41a..5469699abd63 100644
--- a/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java
+++ b/google-cloud-clients/google-cloud-spanner/src/main/java/com/google/cloud/spanner/spi/v1/GapicSpannerRpc.java
@@ -107,6 +107,7 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
 import java.util.concurrent.Future;
+import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledExecutorService;
 import javax.annotation.Nullable;
 import org.threeten.bp.Duration;
 
@@ -139,6 +140,8 @@ public class GapicSpannerRpc implements SpannerRpc {
   private final Duration checkInterval =
       systemProperty(PROPERTY_PERIOD_SECONDS, DEFAULT_PERIOD_SECONDS);
 
+  private final ScheduledExecutorService spannerWatchdog;
+
   public static GapicSpannerRpc create(SpannerOptions options) {
     return new GapicSpannerRpc(options);
   }
@@ -191,14 +194,15 @@ public GapicSpannerRpc(SpannerOptions options) {
     CredentialsProvider credentialsProvider =
         GrpcTransportOptions.setUpCredentialsProvider(options);
 
+    spannerWatchdog =
+        Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor(
+            new ThreadFactoryBuilder()
+                .setDaemon(true)
+                .setNameFormat("Cloud-Spanner-WatchdogProvider-%d")
+                .build());
     WatchdogProvider watchdogProvider =
         InstantiatingWatchdogProvider.create()
-            .withExecutor(
-                Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor(
-                    new ThreadFactoryBuilder()
-                        .setDaemon(true)
-                        .setNameFormat("Cloud-Spanner-WatchdogProvider-%d")
-                        .build()))
+            .withExecutor(spannerWatchdog)
             .withCheckInterval(checkInterval)
             .withClock(NanoClock.getDefaultClock());
 
@@ -572,6 +576,7 @@ public void shutdown() {
     this.spannerStub.close();
     this.instanceAdminStub.close();
     this.databaseAdminStub.close();
+    this.spannerWatchdog.shutdown();
   }
 
   /**