A HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR VETERINARY STUDENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

NEUTERING SURGERY

ACADEMY

Develop your skills and confidence with routine neutering of males and females in our tutored courses in Europe.

5 days of 100% practical surgery
Mentoring and monitoring by experienced practitioner
High standard practice with IV access, multimodal pain relief and gas anaesthesia

BOOK A COURSE

BRINGING CONFIDENCE TO ROUTINE SURGERY

Veterinarians often struggle to achieve surgical competence and this undermines their confidence in their skills.

Why We Struggle

Lack of Opportunities
In many countries, due to the structure of clinical practice, you don’t even have the opportunity to practise surgery.
Lack of Support
When you don’t have adequate support, you don’t feel good about practising new surgeries on your patients completely alone.
Not Enough Cases
Even when you do have the ability and knowledge to perform surgery, sometimes cases are not frequent enough for you to feel like you are keeping your skills up to date.

The “No Experience Cycle”

In a busy practice, it is common for surgeries to be completed by the most experienced vets, as this is the most time efficient, with best outcomes. This starts a cycle where inexperienced vets do not have the chance to improve.

THE COURSE EXPERIENCE

The Neutering Surgery Academy is an intensive and immersive learning experience lasting for 5 days in different locations. You will be part of a small group and you will have one or two tutors available to support you while you are in surgery.

Level 1

Portugal

Suitable for vets who have not done any surgery. Level 1 focuses on tissue handling, castration techniques and feline spays (midline and flank).

Level 2

Portugal and Spain

This level is for vets who have done some surgery but need guidance and confidence. It focuses on bitch spays, but we also do cat spays.

Level 3

Romania

This level is suitable for vets that want to improve their technique with bitch spays and go through a high number of surgeries, which are back-to-back.

MORE THAN JUST A TRAINING COURSE

Support

Your tutors will be available for you the entire time. They can guide you, help you or just cheer for you, and will be ready to put down any fires!

Experience

You will be the only surgeon doing surgery on your patient. You may also gain experience with anaesthesia and associated procedures.

Standards

You will be working mostly with shelter dogs and cats and some private pets, and you will be exposed to private practice conditions.

Community

We will be there to give you support during and outside of the course. Take some time to relax and stretch your back after a day of surgeries.

Next Courses

Our surgery courses are appropriate for veterinary graduates as well as final year veterinary students.

Level 1 (Portugal) - dates pending for 2026

Level 2 (Portugal) - 2 vacancies

15 - 19 September 2025
ONE VACANCY LEFT

Level 3 (Romania) - 3 vacancies

20 - 24 October 2025

TRAVEL, STAY AND MEALS

In Portugal, the Neutering Academy takes place in our Training Centre in Vila Franca de Xira, in the outskirts of Lisbon. This city is 20-min drive from Lisbon Airport and can also be easily reached by underground + train from the airport. We will help you with your travel arrangements.

We will offer you accommodation at a local guesthouse. This is a 5-minute walk from the Training Centre and downtown.

In Romania, we are outside Bucharest. Accommodation is on site (your own bedroom and bathroom) and we will arrange airport taxi from Bucharest airport (Bucharest Otopeni).

We provide all meals from Sunday night to Saturday morning, including breakfast, coffee breaks, lunch and dinner.

The costs of accommodation and meals are already included in the course fee, so you don’t have to pay any extra for your meals or your stay.

How to Book a Course

As we have limited vacancies and match our students, our booking process is a bit different from what you may be used to!

Choose the dates that suit you best

Have a look at the dates available and the levels and choose the one that is better for you to join the course.

Pre-Book

Once you know what date suits you, send us your intention to book a vacancy by leaving your details in our registration form. You can access this below on the button "REGISTRATION FORM".

Q&A session and vacancy confirmation

Once we receive your registration form, we will ask you to arrange a free Q&A session at your convenience. In this session we go through the most appropriate level for you, taking into consideration your goals and experience, and explain to you what to expect from the course. We will also explain next steps should you want to go ahead with the registration.

Deposit and registration

After the Q&A session we hope you have all the information you need to make your decision. If you want to join us and we have confirmed that there is a vacancy for you, we will send a deposit request to secure your place. Once this deposit is received, your vacancy is secure.

REGISTRATION FORM

JOIN US

Three Good Reasons to Join

The Neutering Academy will offer you a unique learning experience and growth opportunity.

40h of CPD

40 hours of certified CPD with a proficiency diploma at the end.

Expert support

Guidance, mentoring and help from your tutor or tutors.

From competence to proficiency

Our different levels help you take the right level of support for your case and improve your competence and confidence in the fastest possible way.

Book a Course

Request a Q&A Session

What people say about our course

Thank you so much for the great course and the great time, Luis and Judy are awesome. This was an excellent experience and an outstanding course!! I have learned so much and I found the course one of the best courses I have attended. I feel so much more comfortable with surgery after only a week, definitely an invaluable experience for my future.

Clara Garcia

The course was great, I learnt so much from Luis and Judy-they were excellent teachers. I have gone from worrying about spays to now being comfortable in what I am doing and can’t thank them enough. It was a fun and enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to all.

Mia Kalyvides

This course exceeded any expectation that I had. I imagined that the first two days we would be confined to a chair and a desk as our mentors would theoretically talk about different techniques/anaesthetics procedures used in bitch spay. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We arrived at Scooby on Monday and as soon as the brilliant staff brought the first dogs we were doing bitch spays.

Stefana Trufin

Frequently asked question

Here are a few answers to our most common questions

I'm a veterinary student, can I join?

Yes, this course is for veterinary graduates and final year veterinary students who want to develop their skills with neutering and become confident with the procedure. If you are still not in your final year, you will need to wait a bit longer ;)

I have never done surgery, can I join?

Yes you can! We will make sure we pair you with someone that has similar experience level you do so you can learn at similar paces. We will teach you the foundations of surgery and go at your skill level.

How many surgeries can I do?

We don’t want you to focus solely on the number of surgeries, but all our delegates have done at least 8 surgeries of their own during the course, and in level 3 you will do a minimum of 3 per day.

What sort of help will I have?

We always make sure you have an experienced general surgeon to teach our courses. The tutors in Romania are also experienced in high volume high quality spays.

What am I expected to do during the course?

For our foundational level 1 and level 2 courses, you will swap between surgery and anaesthesia with the other delegates. When you are doing surgery, you will be responsible for the procedure (and our tutor will be with you all the time). If you are doing anaesthesia, you will also have the opportunity to place IV catheters, administer medication, induce anaesthesia and intubate patients. For level 3 you will only be doing surgery and have no anaesthesia duties - when you finish survery, you call out the staff and they give you another surgery!

How much does this course cost?

The 5-day Academy costs a total of £2500 for level 1 and level 2, and £3500 for level 3. The fee already includes accommodation and meals for the entire length of the course and is paid in two installments.

Where do I stay when I do this course?

If you join us in Portugal, you will stay at a local guesthouse in the town centre, which is a 5-minute walk from the training centre. If you join us in Romania, we provide a private bedroom and bathroom on site, on the same grounds as the neutering wing.

Are meals included?

Yes, from Sunday night to Saturday morning, your meals are all included and you don’t pay any extra for them! We will also accommodate your preferences and limitations.

What about travel?

Travel is NOT included in the course fees, so you will need to make your own travel arrangements. However, we will help you with them and can help you look at flight options, as well as travel options from the airport to your hotel.

What do I need to bring?

Comfortable shoes, an extra pair of scrubs if you fancy (although we do have laundry facilities) and your own stethoscope if you are anything like our founder and can only hear things if it’s your stethoscope and no one else’s!