The clinical, anaesthetic and surgical records of 142 bitches admitted into the primary care clinic at the Small Animal Hospital, University of Liverpool, between January 2002 and August 2004 for routine ovariohysterectomy by final-year students were analysed for complications during and after the surgery. The time taken to perform the surgical procedure was recorded, to allow assessment of the time involved in one-to-one surgical teaching during live-recovery surgeries of client-owned pets. The types of complications were similar to those reported in earlier studies: nine bitches suffered haemorrhage of the ovarian arteries during surgery, and there were four cases of haemorrhage after surgery, 12 cases of wound inflammation and four other types of complication. The rates of intraoperative, postoperative and total complications were 6.3, 14.1 and 20.6 per cent, respectively.