PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Bay Pines VA is getting some assistance from man's best friend to help keep veterans in recovery on track.

Flash is a canine with a nose that not only can sniff out illegal drugs, but he can locate a missing veteran better and faster than any police search.

When it comes to service dogs, Flash has one of the best jobs, serving people who served their country.

A 2-year-old lab, Flash does more than serve as a friendly break from the rigors of caring for thousands of veterans at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center.

He’s keeping a watchful eye, or actually a watchful nose, on veterans in recovery.

“We usually try to go through the common areas of the domiciliary,” said Flash’s trainer, Bay Pines Police Corporal Jeremy Jolley. "And the substance abuse areas just to provide a visual presence and a visual deterrent.”

Jolley said there are some of the most vulnerable patients the VA serves, dealing with substance abuse. So Flash works not to get patients in trouble, but to get them to help they need.

“He is trained on marijuana, cocaine, heroine and methamphetamine," Jolley said. “It’s to make sure they don’t fall off the wagon, the proverbial wagon. To ensure that they feel safe and they can feel comfortable coming here to get the help that they need.”

Out of the 1,400 facilities, the VA runs, Bay Pines is one of only 26 that has this K-9 program up and running. And since Flash has been on patrol here since December, his job duties have expanded.

“He is also a tracking/trailing dog," Jolley said. "We can use him to find missing and endangered patients here on campus. We have lakes. We have the beach. We have a nature preserve area. We have parking lots. We have the inside of buildings. In the time it would take 10 of us to search the woods, he can do it in 10 or 15 minutes where it would take us an hour or two to do it.”