88,

Read the book "Hey pup fetch it up". I bought mine at Cabelas and trained my first lab from it. I amazed myself at how this dog turned out. Training your own dog is very rewarding, but it takes many many hours and months to do it correctly. $500 a month may very well be worth it if you don't have the knowledge or time. It can be difficult for some people to FF (force fetch) thier own dogs and when you read about this you will understand why, but this is a very important step that a professional can accomplish for you. Good luck.