When Helen and Gavin Cook started rescuing dogs many years ago, they never envisaged that it would lead to starring in a national TV series and writing a book, but that’s exactly where they find themselves. After making their screen debut in TVNZ’s The Dog House NZ in February last year, the owners of Country Retreat Animal Sanctuary at Pohuehue have now published Good Dogs, which combines touching stories from the show with practical advice on everything about owning a dog and keeping it healthy and happy. Helen admits the TV show experience and then putting together Good Dogs has put them a little out of their comfort zone.
“It’s very weird, I normally just want to be in the background,” she says. “But the TV people were amazing. And when it came to the book, I had a ghost writer to help me, as I’m working here seven days a week.
“It took quite a few months and was a big learning curve.” Initially, the book was going to be a glossy coffee table affair, featuring some of The Dog House rescue stars that had been matched to new owners by the Cooks and found happy, forever homes. However, with Helen and Gavin’s extensive experience with literally thousands of dogs and puppies, it made sense to expand it into a more practical guide to responsible dog ownership.
“I’m not a dog trainer, I’m not a vet, this is just my opinion,” Helen stresses. “A lot of it is common sense.” Unfortunately, when it comes to abandoned and stray dogs, there’s not a lot of that around at the moment.
The number of dogs needing to be rescued and re-homed has snowballed in recent years and there is no way that rescue services like the Cooks can keep up with demand. “In the last week of June, we took on 17 more dogs, but we had to turn away 74,” Helen says. “It’s never-ending.
And legislation wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference, because there’s no one to enforce it.” The situation was made worse during covid, when most vets deemed desexing and even vaccinating as non-essential procedures. That has lately been compounded by the cost of living crisis, with far more people unable to afford dog ownership.
“People are struggling. We really feel for people out there,” Helen says. “We’re getting a lot of purebreds in now – retrievers, spaniels, great danes.
” The Cooks run boarding kennels to help fund the rescue work and rely on donations and help from volunteers to care for their many residents. The workload – and vets’ bills – are constant. “Without our volunteers, we couldn’t do this,” Helen says.
“Gavin is up making food from 5.30 every morning and we don’t finish until 7pm, and if we have puppies, I have to do night shifts, as they need feeding every couple of hours.” It costs thousands of dollars every month for flea and worming treatments, vaccinations, desexing and food – puppy milk alone costs $70 for 250g.
It’s no surprise to hear that many rescue services are forced to close due to owner burnout. But while they can, Helen and Gavin are determined to help as many dogs and puppies at their idyllic nine hectare rural property as possible. “My ideal situation would be that we’re not needed.
I would love it if we didn’t have to do what we do and get home from a rescue crying my eyes out,” Helen says. “But in the meantime, every dog should be desexed by six months, unless it’s at a properly registered breeder. “For now, we’re in a position to help, so we do.
It’s as simple as that.” To donate or find out more about adopting a rescue dog, visit has two copies of Good Dogs to give away. To be in to win, simply send an email with your name and contact number to and put ‘Good Dogs’ in the subject line.
Entries can also be posted or dropped in to our office at 17 Neville Street, Warkworth. Deadline is 5pm, July 30..
