Meet Sammie

Sammie is a 9 year old Brittany dog, commonly known to be friendly and bright. He is a certified medical alert dog. Students often assume he works with the special education group of kids here at Gloucester High School, but he is actually in charge of Angela Wyco, a special education teacher at GHS. Angela has been teaching for 17 years and Sammie has been at her side for 5 of those years. 

Angela had a serious medical scare in the middle of her career and she said ¨I was only able to return to work because of Sammie and what he does for me. If it weren’t for him, I would not have been able to come to work safely and effectively. He is my life line.¨ Angela knew she wanted a Brittany dog, so she spent a year researching everything there is to know about Brittanys. She then found Sammie, a retired American Kennel Club competitor, who was originally working as a mobility service dog. Sammie was born with the natural ability to detect high and low blood pressure. Sammy’s job is to let Angela know if her blood pressure is too high or low. Sammie will paw at her indicating that she needs to either sit or lie down to regulate her blood pressure. When Sammie isn’t working you can be sure he is sleeping at home cuddled up to his owner Angela, or learning his new skill on how to recognize seizures . It is very clear that Sammie and Angela are best friends, so naturally they go everywhere together. Even when Sammie is not working at school he is still working everywhere else trying his best to be invisible and out of the way. If all goes to plan, Sammie is on track to retire at 12 years old and then Angela will start her journey to find a new service dog.