I hunted years without a dog, and yes I got birds, but since I have been using Labradors, I get to atleast see more birds, and they have been a great asset in the hunting field.
It does take a lot of training and commitment to get a dog trained up. I guess you could train your border collie to flush the birds, heck you can train almost any dog/animal to do something. Question? why don't you get a dog/breed that is bred to hunt upland birds?