How a Sheep-Herding Cardiologist Spends His Sundays

5 mornings per week, Dr. David Slotwiner, the chief of cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital, will be discovered tending to human hearts.

However on Sunday mornings, he’s on a grass-covered area at a rural farm in Hackettstown, N.J., standing amongst half a dozen sheep, whistle in hand, instructing his Border collies Cosmo and Luna to herd.

“It helps me take into consideration what it takes to be an efficient chief, although docs don’t reply to whistles very effectively,” stated Dr. Slotwiner, 58, who makes a speciality of cardiac electrophysiology.

He began coming to the farm through the coronavirus pandemic, after Cosmo started displaying aggression and bit his spouse, Anne Slotwiner, 60. A coach really useful a small sheep farm in New Jersey, Wayside Farm, that trains Border collies — and, as soon as he herded with Cosmo for the primary time, he was hooked.

Dr. Slotwiner shares a three-bedroom home in Pelham, the oldest city in Westchester County, together with his spouse, Cosmo, Luna and a 15-year-old American Eskimo rescue, George. (He has two grownup sons, Harry, 28, and Peter, 25.)

SLEEPING IN, KIND OF Through the week, I rise up round 5 a.m., however on Sundays, I’ll sleep till 6:30 a.m. I’m not a morning particular person, however I’ve been compelled to be a morning particular person. I’ll begin the day by studying The New York Occasions on my iPhone in mattress.

RISE AND RIDE I am going to a 7:30 a.m. SoulCycle class in Bronxville. It’s at all times timed to the rhythm of the music, which makes it completely different from different spin lessons. Earlier than the pandemic, I used to be usually taking six lessons per week, which was not wholesome.

MORNING MEET-UP Round 9 a.m., I meet my spouse for breakfast at Caffè Ammi in Pelham. She’ll have the canine in her automotive, as a result of my automotive isn’t fairly sufficiently big to take them out to the farm in. I’ll get a big complete milk latte with one sugar and a warmed-up cranberry scone and — if I’m feeling decadent — an almond croissant.

OUT TO THE FARM I drive about an hour and quarter-hour to Wayside Farm. I’ll take heed to a podcast on the best way — I really like “Laborious Fork” and the NewYork-Presbyterian podcast “Well being Issues.” And I actually take pleasure in John Mandrola’s “This Week in Cardiology.” He’s a little bit of a curmudgeon and at all times is sluggish to undertake new expertise, and so I like to listen to his essential views. I are usually a little bit little bit of an earlier adopter, however I like to listen to the science of either side.

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK We arrive on the farm round 11 a.m., and I seize my whistle and placed on my headset — the distances are very nice throughout the sector, so that is how I can hear the folks coaching me — and head out on the sector with Cosmo and Luna.

Gene Sheninger and Teri Rhodes, who personal the farm, prepare folks to the best degree of competitors internationally, however they’ll additionally take novices. There are different herding breeds, however Border collies are usually the most typical and are usually one of the best for sheep.

BABY STEPS The very first thing you train them is to go clockwise, which is named “come by,” or counterclockwise, “away.” And you then train them to drive the sheep to you in a straight line, in a managed means, in order that they don’t push the sheep so shortly that they scatter. And you then train them to push the sheep past you, which is among the hardest issues to get them to do, as a result of Border collies need order — they don’t need the sheep to flee.

The final word problem is to show the canine how you can separate the sheep into two teams, as a result of the sheep instinctually wish to keep collectively as a herd.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE When you’re a sure distance away, you must give instructions utilizing a whistle. In competitions, generally you do that over 800 or 900 yards, the place you possibly can’t even see the sheep. However the canine be taught to belief you a lot that they know that when you give them the command to go clockwise, even when they don’t see the sheep, they’ll go clockwise to the sting of the sector and hold working and working and working till they discover these sheep, after which they’ll convey them to you.

NEWBIE NOSTALGIA It’s nice to be a novice at my age, as a result of I’m instructing medical college students and residents day-after-day. I’m instructing attending cardiologists how you can do invasive procedures. It’s refreshing to be a newbie at one thing, to recollect how it’s to be taught as I’m instructing folks.

GETTING IN THE ZONE I’ll pack up round 12:30 p.m. or 1 p.m., then hop into the automotive and end my medical podcast on the best way again to Pelham. It helps me get within the mind-set for work.

DUMPLING DETOUR If I’m on name on the hospital, which I’m each fourth weekend, I’ll head to downtown Flushing to seize a chew to eat earlier than my shift. I really like the soup dumplings at Juqi.

DR. BOW-TIE WILL SEE YOU NOW I arrive round 2 p.m. and alter into scrubs. I’ll normally have 4 or 5 sufferers to inspect, after which I’ll deal with some paperwork or evaluate a manuscript or two.

I’m sometimes rocking a bow tie. Fifteen years in the past, a affected person gave me one, and I made a decision I’d give it a strive. It took me some time to determine how you can tie them — it was a whole lot of YouTube movies — however then I’d put on it sometimes, and my sufferers actually appreciated it. So then I went all in on bow ties. I’ve greater than 50.

DINNER DATE Round 5 or 6 p.m., I’ll head again to Pelham to select up my spouse, and we’ll meet our son Harry and our daughter-in-law for dinner in Williamsburg. One in all our go-to locations is Ringolevio. If I’m splurging, I’ll have a skirt steak and a glass of pink wine. Or I would meet my mother and father, who dwell in Battery Park, at a Greek restaurant down the block from them, Anassa Taverna. I really like the grilled branzino, with white wine.

FUN WITH FRISBEES You may’t simply come dwelling to Border collies and say, “OK, it’s time to go to mattress.” They’ve been herding for an hour and a half to 2 hours, they usually’re working exhausting. So I’ll come dwelling and play Frisbee with Cosmo and Luna for round half an hour. Cosmo could be very toy motivated. Luna largely desires affection and interplay.

KINDLE TIME I’ll climb into mattress round 11:30 p.m. and browse for half an hour on my Kindle. Proper now I’m studying a Tana French novel, “Devoted Place,” which I’m having fun with. It’s a e-book to clear my mind. I’ve additionally completed one other e-book that I actually love, Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead.” I really like the function the place you possibly can swap between studying on the Kindle and listening to it, as a result of that means, once I commute, whether or not it’s to work or to the farm, I can proceed it.

OUT LIKE A LIGHT I normally go to sleep near midnight. I’m an evening owl. However I don’t go to SoulCycle on Monday morning, since I’ve had the entire weekend to train, so I don’t should rise up till 6.