After 8 months of work my reactive rescue finally has reliable recall and i could cry

Bit of a happy post today. We adopted Juniper (3yo cattle dog mix) last September and she came to us with zero recall and a strong prey drive. First few months in the backyard she would just stare through me when i called her like i was speaking another language.

I started from absolute zero. Long line in the yard, paying her with chicken every single time her name got her attention. Then "come" was a separate cue layered on top. We did this twice a day for months. Some weeks i felt like nothing was clicking and i wondered if id picked too tough a project for my first dog.

Yesterday at the state park she chased a squirrel about 30 yards out, i called her once, and she actually turned and came back. Full sprint, tongue flying, the whole thing. I cried in the parking lot like a weirdo. If anyone is in the early painful months of recall training - keep going. The boring repetition is doing something even when you cant see it.