Creating Eloquent Queries

I'm trying to get a better understanding of the way the Eloquent queries are / should be constructed. I'm very comfortable writing plain sql queries but then translating them to eloquent syntax is proving a challenge. Granted this is all new stuff to me so I understand that there is a leraning curve involved.

I have the following SQL query;

SELECT
  rescue_centres.name AS Centre,
  Count(DISTINCT animals.id) AS Total,
  animals.breed,
  animal_types.name AS type,
  animals.gender
FROM
  rescue_centres
  INNER JOIN animals ON animals.rescue_centre_id = rescue_centres.id
  INNER JOIN animal_types ON animal_types.id = animals.animal_type_id
GROUP BY
  rescue_centres.name,
  animals.breed,
  animal_types.name,
  animals.gender

In my Laravel app there are the following corresponding Models; RescueCentre, Animal, AnimalType.

I have a couple of questions if I may.

What is the best way to represent multiple joins like this in Eloquent syntax, and specify the specific columns one wants returned.

Probably the more important question in many respects if one is to learn this, which section of the Laravel Documentation would have been the one I should have turned to first in order to try and answer the first question. I find it a great shame that the examples shown don't have a plain SQL example alongside, it would make it much easier to pickup if they did.