How a Sheep-Herding Cardiologist Spends His Sundays

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

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

“It helps me take into consideration what it takes to be an efficient chief, although medical doctors don’t reply to whistles very nicely,” stated Dr. Slotwiner, 58, who focuses on cardiac electrophysiology.

He began coming to the farm throughout the coronavirus pandemic, after Cosmo started exhibiting aggression and bit his spouse, Anne Slotwiner, 60. A coach beneficial 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, along 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 individual, however I’ve been pressured to be a morning individual. I’ll begin the day by studying The New York Instances on my iPhone in mattress.

RISE AND RIDE I’m going to a 7:30 a.m. SoulCycle class in Bronxville. It’s all the time timed to the rhythm of the music, which makes it totally 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 large enough to take them out to the farm in. I’ll get a big entire 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 like “Hard Fork” and the NewYork-Presbyterian podcast “Health Matters.” And I actually get pleasure from John Mandrola’s “This Week in Cardiology.” He’s a little bit of a curmudgeon and all the time is gradual to undertake new know-how, and so I like to listen to his important views. I are typically slightly 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 sphere, so that is how I can hear the folks coaching me — and head out on the sphere with Cosmo and Luna.

Gene Sheninger and Teri Rhodes, who personal the farm, practice folks to the very best stage of competitors internationally, however they’ll additionally take novices. There are different herding breeds, however Border collies are typically the most typical and are typically the most effective for sheep.

BABY STEPS The very first thing you educate them is to go clockwise, which known as “come by,” or counterclockwise, “away.” And you then educate them to drive the sheep to you in a straight line, in a managed manner, so that they don’t push the sheep so rapidly that they scatter. And you then educate 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 last word problem is to show the canine easy methods to 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, it’s important to give instructions utilizing a whistle. In competitions, generally you do that over 800 or 900 yards, the place you’ll be able to’t even see the sheep. However the canine be taught to belief you a lot that they know that should 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 sphere and preserve operating and operating and operating till they discover these sheep, after which they’ll deliver them to you.

NEWBIE NOSTALGIA It’s nice to be a novice at my age, as a result of I’m educating medical college students and residents daily. I’m educating attending cardiologists easy methods to do invasive procedures. It’s refreshing to be a newbie at one thing, to recollect how it’s to be taught as I’m educating 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 chunk to eat earlier than my shift. I 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 check out, after which I’ll maintain some paperwork or evaluation 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 attempt. It took me some time to determine easy methods to tie them — it was loads of YouTube movies — however then I might 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 choose up my spouse, and we’ll meet our son Harry and our daughter-in-law for dinner in Williamsburg. Considered one of our go-to locations is Ringolevio. If I’m splurging, I’ll have a skirt steak and a glass of crimson wine. Or I’d meet my mother and father, who dwell in Battery Park, at a Greek restaurant down the block from them, Anassa Taverna. I like the grilled branzino, with white wine.

FUN WITH FRISBEES You possibly can’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 principally desires affection and interplay.

KINDLE TIME I’ll climb into mattress round 11:30 p.m. and skim for half an hour on my Kindle. Proper now I’m studying a Tana French novel, “Faithful 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 like the characteristic the place you’ll be able to swap between studying on the Kindle and listening to it, as a result of that manner, 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 must rise up till 6.