Five mornings a week, dr. David Slotwiner, head of the Cardiology of New York -Presbyterian Queens Hospital, can be found on human hearts.
But on Sunday morning, he is in a field covered in grass in a rural farm of Hackettowown, in New Jersey, standing between half a dozen sheep, whistle in his hand, teaching his border Collie Cosmo and Luna at the pack.
“It helps me to think about what you need to be an effective leader, even if doctors don't respond very well to the whistles,” said dr. Slotwiner, 58, specialized in cardiac electrophysiology.
He started coming to the farm during the Pandemia del Coronavirus, after Cosmo began to show aggression and bit his wife, Anne Slowiner, 60 years old. A coach recommended a small sheep farm in New Jersey, Wayside Farm, who trains Border Collies – and, once he scored Cosmo for the first time, he was accused.
Dr. Slotwiner shares a house with three bedrooms in Pelham, the oldest city in the Westchester County, with his wife, Cosmo, Luna and a 15 -year -old American saving, George. (He has two adult children, Harry, 28 and Peter, 25.)
Sleep, a little On an average weekday, I get up around 5 in the morning, but on Sunday I will sleep until 6:30 in the morning I am not a morning person, but I was forced to be a morning person. I will start the day by reading the New York Times on my iPhone in bed.
Rise and ride I go to a soulcycle lesson at 7:30 in Bronxville. It is always timed to the rhythm of music, which makes it different from the other Spin classes. Before the pandemic, I often attended six lessons per week, which was not healthy.
Morning meeting Around 9 pm, I meet my wife for breakfast at Caffè Ado in Pelham. He will have dogs in his car, because my car is not big enough to bring them to the farm. I will take a large whole milk milk with a sugar and a stem of heated red blueberry e-if I feel decadent-a almond croissant.
Outside the farm Guido for about an hour and 15 minutes from the farm. I will listen to a podcast on the road: I love “Hard Fork” and the New York-Apresbyterian “Health Matters' podcast. And I really like” this week in cardiology by John Mandrola. It is a bit of a cureudgeon and it is always slow to adopt new technologies, and therefore I like to listen to its critical perspectives. I tend to be a bit of a previous adopter, but I like to hear the science of both sides.
Whistle while you work We arrive at the farm around 11 in the morning and I grab the whistle and I put myself in headphones – the distances are very large on the field, so that's how I can hear the people who train me – and I go to the field with Cosmo and Luna.
Gene Sheninger and Teri Rhodes, who own the farm, train people at the highest level of competition internationally, but also take novices. There are other raised breeds, but Border Collies tend to be the most common and tend to be the best for sheep.
Small steps The first thing they teach them is to go clockwise, which is called “Come” or in an anti -eral sense, “away”. And then teach them to guide you the sheep in a straight line, in a controlled way, so that they do not push the sheep so quickly that they disperse. And then teach them to push the sheep beyond you, who is one of the most difficult things to make them do, because Border Collies want order – they don't want the sheep to escape.
The last challenge is to teach the dog how to separate the sheep in two groups, because sheep instinctively want to be together like a herd.
Commerce tools Once you are at a certain distance, you have to give controls using a whistle. In competitions, sometimes you do it over 800 or 900 IARDE, where you cannot even see the sheep. But dogs learn to trust so much about you who know that if you give them the command to go clockwise, even if they do not see the sheep, they will go in a clockwise sense to the board of the field and continue to run and work until they find those sheep, and then they will bring them to you.
Nostalgia Beginner It's nice to be a beginner at my age, because I teach medical and resident students every day. I am teaching to attend cardiologists how to perform invasive procedures. It is refreshing to be a beginner in something, remember how it is to learn while teaching people.
Enter the area I will pack the suitcases around 12:30 or 13:00, so I will jump in the car and finish my medical podcast on the way back to Pelham. It helps me to enter the mentality for work.
Deviation of gnocchi If I am on guard in the hospital, which are every quarter weekend, I will head to the center to take a bite to eat before my turn. I love Juqi soup gnocchi.
Dr. Bow-Tie will see you now Arrival around 14:00 and change in scrub. Usually I will have four or five patients to check, so I will deal with some documents or examine a manuscript or two.
In general, I am swinging a bow tie. Fifteen years ago, a patient gave me one and I decided to try. It took me a while to understand how to tie them – were many YouTube videos – but then I wore it from time to time and I really liked my patients. So I went all in papilli. I have more than 50.
Dinner date Around 17 or 6 pm, I will return to Pelham to take my wife and we will meet our son Harry and our daughter -in -law for dinner in Williamsburg. One of our favorite places is RingoLevio. If I'm making a madness, I will have a skirt steak and a glass of red wine. Or I could meet my parents, who live in Battery Park, in a Greek restaurant at the bottom of the block by them, Anassa Taverna. I love the grilled sea bass, with white wine.
Fun with Frisbees You can't simply go home for Border Collies and say: “Ok, it's time to go to bed”. They are raised for an hour and a half to two hours and are working hard. So I'll go home and play Frisbee with Cosmo and Luna for about half an hour. Cosmo is very motivated by toys. Moon mainly wants to affection and interaction.
Kindle Time I will go to bed around 23:30 and read for half an hour on my Kindle. At this moment I am reading a French novel by Tana, “Faithful Place”, which I like. It is a book to free the brain. I also finished another book that I really love, “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver. I love the function in which you can go from a reading on the Kindle and listen to it, because in that way, when I move, whether it is to work or the farm, I can continue.
Out like a light Usually I fall asleep near midnight. I am a night. But I'm not going to Soulcycle on Monday morning, since I had the whole weekend to exercise, so I don't have to get up until 6.