I’m guessing they didn’t get a good nose full because of weird air currents. Can’t say I have ever had an animal ignore my scent. Air currents do funny things. I’ve seen some odd things dog training and the only explanation is the air is doing things to the scent you can’t see and don’t understand.
Don’t forget how colossally screwed up the NR licensing process is, and how refusal to fix it continues to create problems. It’s probably the dumbest process in the western states.