They control dragons by way of controlling their captain; their handler. Most dragons would do anything rather than let their captain be harmed, or even upset. And I suppose no one ever considered that they could simply just take their captains and go away, as the captains would not have liked it much. We did threaten a general strike during the war, which the admiralty was not at all pleased with, but since they did not like to fight without us we were able to negotiate for pay and voting rights. I suppose it would be a lot simpler if we simply killed anyone who did not like to give us what we want, but I would not consider that very civilised, unless someone was being very unreasonable.
Certainly I will meet you. If Tairn is as prodigious as he sounds I asm sure we will be unable to miss each other.