I have just taken on an 11 month on border collie, his previous owner felt that he needed a new home as she felt she felt he was not getting all of the attention that he needed.
He has settled in nicely and has a good recall within the home, we walk him on our local air field and he is well behaved off the lead until it comes down to actually returning to our side. Every time I go towards him he is still in play mode and runs off to prepare himself to catch his toy.
I could do with some help with teaching him how to switch from play mode to his normal self.
I have been browsing trying to find different techniques of teaching recall but he will not come to me for a toy, food or fuss if i call him so therefore I cannot get close enough to grab him. I have tried using a long line and it has not helped so far.

I would keep him on a long line whilst you are doing the re-call training, he has already learnt to avoid, and it will give you more control so he cant run off. Golden rule, never let him run about and only recall at the end and go home, they get wise, hence he is doing what he does.

They get deaf to their name for recall and ignore it when its used too often too. Try using a whistle. Start at home, walking around with treats, cheese chicken,hotdogs, sausage anything liver based is high value to dogs. Find out his absolute favourite and keep only for recall. Walk around and everytime you blow the whistle give him a treat, literally whistle treat,whistle treat, he should follow you. After a few sessions of this, for a few minutes at a time.
Try if when he is sniffing in the garden, call him and whistle, and treat, then if he does that, try it from inside the house. Once he comes, then take it out
outside on the long line. Keep calling him back with the whistle periodically throughout the walk, whistling, treat when he comes, then send him off with Go play again. Sometimes when he comes, throw a ball a few times, others play with a ragger or squeaky toy before sending away again with go play.
It keeps then guessing what rewaard they are going to get and more likely to return in anticipation. Never run after him, it becomes catch me if you can. Instead, whistle and run in the other direction, he should chase you and round you up hes a collie after all. You can use this as another game inbetween too, You can also hide behind trees, whistle and treat or play a game when he finds you as reward.

Once he has been reliable for a while, you can then drop the long line and use it as a drag line, and carry on practising. Eventually you should be able to completely let him off.

Hope this helps.

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Thank you very much, shall definitely give it a try, oh and you're certainly right about the chasing us up, we get herded around about ten times a day :')

Hope it helps let me know how you get on.

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Tesco's roast chicken from the roast spit thing @ the deli ought to do it. You could also starve him for 24 hours and then try the recall with the chicken. You could also try taking his dinner with you on walks and let him know you have it. Recall and then feed. Give him half the amount, send him to play, recall and then give the other half amount or even quarters, do this fo r5 weeks morning and evening. Should solve it.