Near the end of this morning's antelope classifications, our route takes us past the top of one of the active sand dunes.

We've been working a ranch that still occassionally puts out poison devices for killing coyotes, so the the heelers have been pent up in the truck with almost no break for several hours.

As usual, they were a little hyper by the time we got to the dune. A safe place to run and play.

Time for a break.

We hiked the bowl that feeds the dune for a bit, its slopes covered with Indian ricegrass for a change this year. Most recent years it's been bare, loose sand, but the extra moisture this spring and summer has allowed the vegetation to have the upper hand.

If only briefly.

But my favorite sand dune game is one the heelers are less than thrilled with. On the return leg, I fake my move down the steep lee-ward slope of the dune. A move the heelers do not discover until they have reached the bottom.

Forcing them to climb back to the top, only to be faked into racing to the bottom again.

After the third fake, they are no longer enjoying the game.

At which point, I really do bound down to the bottom, actually winning a race with my four-legged companions.

For once.

Then it's back to work, leaving the tracks of our game behind us.

They slept all the way home on the highway. And most the afternoon and evening, too.