[farmvet]

You've taken some great photos.
My border collies have all gone through stages like that.  The best trick I found is taking them places they dont know eg woods with lots of different paths, call once then hide or change direction to keep them listening.  Realising its their responsibilty to keep an eye on you not vice versa makes dog walking much easier.  Sometimes you even need to drive off & park round the corner for a few minutes.  Of course though some dogs just dont care....

[Steph Hen]

I have a trained spaniel, when the trainers got him he had zero interest in toys, but they needed him to want a ball so that he could be trained.

So they made him think that a tennis ball was the best thing ever. They removed all toys from him other than when being trained, then everyone in the room/area would act super over excited playing with the ball. basically four adults played catch, chased it as it rolled across the floor and shouted excitedly when we got to pick it up. He thought we were crazy to start with, but then tried hard to get at this great thing. If he beat us too the ball, lots of excited praise. Took a few half hour stints over two or three days and he's totally hooked for life, will do anything for a ball.

[SallyintNorth]

That made me laugh, Steph Hen - I could see you all in my mind's eye, the dog watching bemusedly as these humans get overexcited over a round bouncy thing!   

You'd never get my collie Dottie to have any interest in a ball, no matter how much you seemed to love it yourself.  However, shimmy an empty plastic Coke bottle across the floor and she'd leave anything but sheep to chase and carry it