TAMPA, Fla. — If a dog is a man’s best friend then Heather Junqueira has 57 besties living in her backyard.

“They love people and they love attention,” said Junquiera, founder of Bioscent.

They’re beagles, to be exact. All ages, all adorable. All training to save lives.

“So if you’re starting with a dog from scratch from when they’re a puppy, and they’ve never done scent detection work. Then you’re looking at about six months to get them strongly on an odor,” said Junquiera.

Junquiera founded Bioscent, a company that works with dogs to sniff out medical conditions.

So we head inside to meet some of the trainees, starting with three-month-old Solo.

Control scents are used to help the puppies learn the process.

Kip Schultz, manager of the FIU Detection Canine Program explains the dog detects that control scent in a canister and gets a treat.

“So we use that to train the animal first on that substance and then we introduce any other scent that we would like to add on to the animal after the calibrate is learned,” said Schultz.

Lately, the scent has been COVID-19.

Trainers say there is no danger at all to the beagles who come in contact with the virus, and when fully trained, they can sniff out a positive patient with 98 percent accuracy.

That is more accurate than a COVID-19 PCR test.

“So I’m ready to put a sample from a COVID-19 patient, so it’s a face mask that the person wore and I’m going to put a sample out for Noel to find,” said Junquiera, as she puts gloves on and holds up a mask.

Beagle Noel is a pro at this — she’s been at it for a while.

And without fail, she sits, meaning she’s sniffed out the mask and detected a positive case.

“They can give you a heads up, like, ‘Ok this dog is detecting Covid in this person, they need to get tested, we need to monitor them,’” said Junquiera.

Trained dogs like Noel are sent all over the country to airports, sporting events, and sometimes even Justin Bieber performances — Noel detected five positive cases there.

“That’s the goal, you know, to get them out there, and working and help people get back to living normal lives again,” said Junquiera.

And after their hard work, the doggies get back to their normal lives too — paid in treats and snuggles and playtime for a job well done.

Since this type of service dog is new, FIU is working on putting together guidelines for certifications to make sure dogs are qualified before hiring.