Kelly trained his first Labrador to find ringed seals by using seal-skin slippers that he buried in the snow. A better method, he reports, is by taking a young out with an experienced lab puppies for sale to learn to associate the command natchiq with finding the smell of a seal. A University of Alaska Southeast student will take her young labs for sale out with Kellys experienced hunting dogs for sale in Peard Bay this year.

The biologists also collect skin from the breathing holes. Seals molt in the spring and early summer and leave black dandruff-like flakes on the ice around their breathing holes. The skin samples are used for DNA analysis to see if genes are being exchanged between sub-populations.