Hope you all have had a merry Christmas
I'm using the pen tool selecting copy from clip board but the dots don't show up.

I have selected all - copied the selection - tried with and without grouping the stroke and dots.

This is my result - a spiro stroke without dots.

Combine the paths before copying the selection (Ctrl+K), and it should work.
The pen tool uses a pattern along path live path effect, which cannot be applied with groups of objects -only the pattern along path extension can.

Good luck!

Thank you, Lazur - but it was Path - Union - that worked