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A very useful tip to know: when she poops or pees somewhere, after cleaning the mess, always rince the spot with some diluted vinegar. You have do it for any kind of surface; plain floors, carpets, etc. But note that dogs always prefer a permeable surface to poop/pee, and that it's those on those surfaces that they can find back their spots easier. You'll probably have noticed that your dog gets the "habbit" to do that in specific places around your house. If you only wash those surfaces the conventionnal ways, even with soaps/cleaning products, she'll retrieve her spots by the smell and continue to do it at those places. I Have experienced that myself with my current dog. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
Another thing that could help you is to regularise your dog's metabolism, if it is realizable (on your lifestyle point of view). If you make her eat, sleep, drink, do exercises always at the same times everyday, she'll most likely end up by pooping/peeing at regular times of the day too. That will help you to know when to be the most careful and to put her outside before she gets the idea of doing it inside the house.
Until she learns successfully to do her things outside, or at least during one or two weeks, you should go with her when you put her outside to poop/pee. And everytime she does it successfully, it is important to reward her warmly, and even play with her. As soon as you catch her doing it inside, and even more if you catch her in action, don't let her finish and immediately take her by the skin of her neck, show her her mess as the others explained earlier, say a firm "NO!", and put her outside, ideally until she finishes to relieve herself or poops/pees again (and don't forget to reward when she does, even if you're still angry after her <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> ). The most important is to always be soft, but firm and tenacious. Watch out your "body language" too, because if you react too violently, chances are that your dog will do worst.
Also, if you always say the same word when you put her outside to poop, that she does and that you reward her, after a while she might end up knowing that command and do it when you ask her to. That's how I work with my own dog, and it is something I appreciate greatly.
But finding a successful technique to educate a dog to relieve itself outside the house (as for any other training) depends greatly on the lifestyle of the owner. In some hard cases where the owners have great education difficulties with their dog or can't be present enough to supervise the dog efficiently, using a cage can be a passive mean that gives good results. I'll post about it a bit later.
As for the fact that she eats her poos, yes, it can be a sign of some nutriments lacking to her organism, but it can also be a simple "instinctive" behavior fact, the same way than dogs always trying to cuckoo with human legs is. You know, as disgusting as it can seem to us, it is a normal behavior in the wild nature that carnivorous animals eat some herbivore's excrements as well as some of their own.
But in order to find the reason why your dog does it, you'd have to talk about it with your vet. If it is a behavior fact, then you can work to make the dog loose that habit the same way than to make her loose other disturbing instinctive behaviors such as chewing your things or digging holes in the yard. If it is a nutriment problem, than your vet will be up to show you how to correct it.
Don't despair too much; you're far from being the only one with this problem persisting and there exist several means to get rid of it. You only have to find the one that suits the best to you and Hilleke. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
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