As a therapist at the Dakota County Jail Treatment Program, Maggie works part-time, attending group counseling sessions and working one-on-one with inmates. She is an excellent listener, has a calming presence and is especially non-judgmental.

Maybe it's her happy blue eyes; maybe it's her thick, soft coat. Whatever the reasons, inmates feel a kinship toward her and credit this 7-year-old border collie with breakthroughs that help turn their lives around.

"In a facility like this, all you have is authority figures," said Sandy Clark, a Dakota County Jail Treatment Program therapist, social worker and Maggie's owner. Having an animal that represents home makes someone in a therapy session feel more comfortable and less vulnerable in a group setting.

"First of all, she is a distraction," Clark said. "I don't know why it happens, but when they're petting her, the words just seem to come out of their mouth."

Clark recalled a session when a gang member, someone who was intimidating to other inmates, shed tears and said things he had never told anybody while sitting next to Maggie.

"They're telling Maggie, but they're also telling us," Clark said. "It really is a bridge of the counseling piece and the therapeutic aspect; dealing with their past issues and learning how to live a sober life."

Graduates of the treatment program and former inmates give Maggie plenty of credit, too.

"We've had many of the guys who, once they get out, write letters to Maggie expressing how much they've appreciated what she's done for them," Clark said.

Jeff C., an inmate who recently completed the treatment program, believes having a dog in group therapy is a catalyst for communicating. But Maggie, in particular, works magic, he said.

"She has some super sense to read feelings," Jeff C. said.

He recalled a session when he was having a bad day because his daughter had been hospitalized.

"I was trying to keep it away from the group but I couldn't. Maggie kept coming toward me like she never had before and would land at my feet. She usually goes to everybody, but she stayed by me that day. Maggie felt it, she was telling me first: 'It's going to be OK.'"

Even the jail employees benefit from Maggie's presence, something that Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows said he appreciates.

"It's a high pressure environment," he said. "The staff works 12-hour days, essentially confined for the duration of their shift. Petting a dog has a real ability to reduce stress."

Maggie, who has been participating in animal-assisted therapy programs for five years, seems to have a special knack for it. Besides being the pick of her litter, compassion is literally in her blood: Her mother and grandmother were also therapy dogs.

"What Maggie does is so different than somebody visiting a nursing home with a therapy dog," Clark said. "She is a co-therapist. I really consider her that. She is zonked by the time we're done with a three-hour therapy group and needs a break as much as I do."

Kara Douglass Thom is a freelance writer living in Savage.