Guss,

I'm surely not a pro at this and I'm am learning as well, but here's what I can see from your post.

Have you done any reading? Books and especially videos are great. There are videos out there that help you refine the dog.

Secondly, on fetching. It would be good to see if you could at last borrow a collar. A little correction is needed when they disobey. If your dog will come when asked or "Whoa" when asked when you are not fetching, chances are your dog is thinking that the bird is his reward and doesn't need to give it to you when you ask him to bring it in. This is when a good correction is needed and you will probably only need to use the correction a few times. There are cheaper training collars out there for about $70, not the 300 or more for a bird dog collar. These cheaper collars are good for one thing, correcting the dog. That's what I can see you need right now. I'm sure you can find a collar on ebay for less than the $70 I quoted.