If this is your first dog a Border Collie is definitely not the dog for you. Border Collies are an extremely high maintenance breed. They have high prey drives and will nip at people's heels if not corrected early on as a puppy due to their extreme herding instincts.
http://www.bordercollie.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi is a BC forum. It is dedicated to the working breed, and everyone there is very experienced with border collies. They will be able to answer any of your questions.
Labs are a great breed if bred correctly. You see alot of over sized, leggy, hyper labs these days. A well bred lab should be energetic, but willing to settle down when told to.
My sister just got a new english springer spaniel puppy. They are great, energet, willing to please, and goofy dogs. If you get the field bred type of springer you will see that they are much smarter than your conformation bred ones.