Parents let my dog off leash

Just need a little vent to people who will understand. I’m staying at my mum’s house with my 1.5yo cocker spaniel. We’ve been working so hard on her recall and have started letting her off lead very slowly, in forest trails where she can’t see the sky (bird chaser), armed with roast chicken, and having slow but steady success. It feels like a huge accomplishment for us as she’s good as gold inside and pretty iffy outside, and we work hard training her every day. We’ve done classes and worked with a trainer, and take it very seriously.

This morning my mum and her partner got up earlier than us and took the dog on a walk before we were awake, and let her off leash in a big open field full of birds – this is literally where she will be at her worst. We explicitly told them no off lead under any circumstances. Open spaces and birds are a recipe for distaster. We can call her back from other dogs, people, sniffs – never birds. They brought no treats with them to help recall her, even though we brought a bag of chicken with us for this purpose and told them to use it if they take her out.

She’s fine but it took them an hour to get her back, chasing her round this field. They came back absolutely fuming at us, saying she’s badly trained, we have no idea what we’re doing, what kind of dog can’t go off lead. I’m absolutely fuming because they completely ignored our instructions, we never asked them to walk her, and they put her in her worst case scenario where she was doomed to fail, and we have been working so damn hard on her training. It’s not easy. They don’t understand. We have similar issues with the parents on the other side, wonder if it’s a generational thing. just want to commiserate with people who might get it.