Book Review: Tina The Dog Who Changed The World by Niall Harbison

‘Tina The Dog Who Changed The World’ is a non-fiction book by Niall Harbison. It was published in 2025 and was his second book, which reflects semi-chronologically on the rescue of a golden retriever he named Tina from the Thai island of Koh Samui, and how she changed his life.

I have never been the biggest reader of non-fiction, and yet, I found myself drawn to this book after serving several customers within a week at Waterstones who all happened to be buying a hardback copy, and I just fell in love with the beautiful image of Tina on the front, and melted even more upon seeing some of the other dogs featured on the back of the dust jacket. I just had to learn their stories.

This book is a powerful story of love and the impact an animal can have on your life, no matter the length of time you have together. While Tina only lived with Niall for a few months, she was so loved by Harbison and his team at Happy Doggo, which would later become the nationally recognised charity it is today, and her legacy was cemented at the time of release in the form of an animal hospital in progress for other neglected, abused and or street animals on this island which he named Tina’s Hospital For Animals That Aren’t Doing So Good.

I loved this book, and cried multiple times throughout the reading process. As a huge dog lover, hearing the annecdotes Harbison sought to share about the dogs in his care was an evocative experience, and I loved how, irrespective of everything that was happening, he let his narration wander back to Tina, because when you’re grieving that happens sometimes.

This book was so hopeful and beautiful, and highlighted the extent to which an animal can make a change, not only for one person but many. For the people on social media that watched her recover from her skin infections to the people who the algorithm may have shown her to in a smiling picture that made them smile too, the power of the internet, or social media, and animals cannot be understated.

I would definitely recommend ‘Tina The Dog Who Changed The World’ for animal lovers, because although Tina’s life was lonely and sad until the latter end, the final chapters of her life, and the legacy she left behind inspires so much hope, and Harbison has so much hope for his future and his mission at Happy Doggo, it was a positive, heartwarming, evocative non-fiction book that I, genuinely, really enjoyed.