Five mornings a week, Dr. David Slotwiner, dean of cardiac disease at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, is able to take care of the human mind.
But on Sunday morning he is in a grassy field on a rural farm in Hackettstown, New Jersey, standing among half a dozen sheep, blowing a whit in his hand, teaching the flock to Colise Cosmo and Luna on the border.
“It helps you think about what it takes to be an effective leader, but doctors don't respond very well to whistles,” said Dr. Slotwiner, 58, who specializes in cardiac electrophysiology.
He began to come to the farm during the coronavirus pandemic after Cosmo began showing off his aggression and bitten his wife, Anne Slotwiner.
Dr. Slotwinner shares a three-bedroom home in Pelham, Westchester County's oldest town, with his wife Cosmo, Luna and 15-year-old American Eskimo rescue George. (He has two adult sons, Harry, 28, and Peter, 25.)
For a week I wake up around 5am, but on Sundays I am forced to be a morning person, although I am not a morning person. Start your day by reading The New York Times on your iPhone in bed.
I get up and ride, and go to the 7:30am Seoul Cycle Class in Bronxville. It's different from other spin classes because it's always timed to the rhythm of the music. Before the pandemic, I often took six classes a week, but it wasn't healthy.
Morning encounters around 9am, I meet my wife for breakfast at the cafe ammi in Pelham. She'll have a dog in her car as my car isn't big enough to take her to the farm. I get a big whole milk latte with sugar and warm cranberry scones – if I feel decadent, almond croissants.
When I headed to the farm, I drove to the farm on the side of the road in about 15 minutes. I listen to podcasts along the way – I love “Hard Folk” and the New York-Presbyterian Podcast “Health Matters.” And I'm really enjoying John Mandrola's “This Week of Cardiology.” He's a bit of a Kamazion and is always slow to adopt new technology, so I'd like to hear his critical perspective. I tend to be a bit early adopter, but I would like to hear about the science of both sides.
While you work, we arrive at the farm around 11am, and I grab whi and put on the headset – the distance is so big throughout the field, so this is how I hear people training me – go out into the field with Cosmo and Luna.
Farm owners, Gene Schoening and Terri Rhodes train people to the highest level of competition internationally, but they take them even beginners. Other breeds of herds tend to be the most common, but border collies tend to be the best for sheep.
Baby Steps The first thing you teach them is to go clockwise. This is called “come” or “break away” counterclockwise. And you teach them to drive the sheep linearly, in a controlled way. And you will teach them to push the sheep beyond you. This is one of the hardest things to have them do because the flesh of the boundaries wants order. They don't want to run away from the sheep.
The ultimate challenge is to teach your dog how to separate the sheep into two groups, as they want to be together as a flock.
Trade tools should provide commands using whistles once they leave a certain distance. At competitions, you may be able to do more than 800 yards or 900 yards where you can't even see the sheep. But the dog learns to trust you very much, and when they give commands clockwise without looking at the sheep, they go clockwise to the edge of the field, running and running until they find the sheep.
Beginner Nostalgia I teach medical students and residents every day so it's great to be a beginner at my age. I teach a cardiologist how to take invasive procedures. It's refreshing to be a beginner to something, remembering how it learns when I'm teaching people.
Once you enter the zone, you will pack it at 12:30pm or 1pm, then jump into the car and finish your medical podcast on your way back to Pelham. It helps me get into the mindset for work.
If you are calling a dumpling detour hospital, if you are calling on the 4th weekend, wash it off to take a bite before your shift. I love soup dumplings at Juqi.
Dr. Bowtie meets you I arrive around 2pm and change into a scrub. I usually need to check 4 or 5 patients. They then take care of the documents and check one or two manuscripts.
I usually rock my bow tie. Fifteen years ago, a patient gave it to me, so I decided to give it a try. It took me a while to figure out how to tie them together – it was a lot of YouTube videos – but I would wear it from time to time, and my patients really liked it. So I got everything in my bow tie. I have over 50.
Dinner date: around 5pm I return to Pelham to pick up my wife. Meet his son Harry and daughter-in-law for dinner in Williamsburg. One of our go-to places is Ringolevio. If I'm in spring, I'd drink a skirt steak and a glass of red wine. Or you might meet your parents who live in Battery Park. I love the Brangino grilled with white wine.
Just having fun at the Frisbee and not going back to Border Collie and say, “Okay, it's time to go to sleep.” They are grazing for an hour and a half to two hours, and they work hard. So I'll go home and play Cosmo, Luna and Frisbee for about 30 minutes. Cosmos are very toy motivated. Luna mainly wants love and interaction.
Kindle Time I climbed to bed around 11:30pm and read on my Kindle for 30 minutes. Now I'm reading Tana French novel “The Faithful Place” which I enjoy. It's a book to clear my brain. I also completed another book I really love, Barbara Kingsolver's Devil Copperhead. I love the ability to switch between reading Kindle and listening to it. That way, when I commute, whether it's work or going to the farm, I can continue with it.
Like light, I usually fall asleep near midnight. I'm an owl at night. However, I was working out the whole weekend so I don't go to SoulCycle on Monday mornings so I don't have to wake up until 6am.
