Housebreaking an older dog

Question
I'm at the end of my rope.

We adopted a 2 1/2 year old beagle almost two years ago.  She had been raised in an outdoor kennel so she wasn't housebroken.  When we first got her she was stubborn about housebreaking, but she seemed to do okay.  She'd have an accident maybe once a week, urine only.  But this past fall when I went back to work and my sons went back to school she completely regressed.  She peed and pooped daily in the living room and one of my son's bedrooms.  We talked to a dog trainer, and she recommended keeping her leashed or crated 24 hours a day for a month.  We did that (with a couple of lapses that resulted in accidents.)  Yesterday was a month, so I left her off her leash in the house.  I woke up this morning to a pile of dog feces in my closet and another in my living room.

Other than having her put down, do you have any suggestions?  If she can't learn in a month, then I don't see any hope for her.  

This makes me sick because she is a sweet dog other than the peeing and pooping everywhere. But I just can't have every carpet in my home ruined by a dog that can't be housebroken.

Answer
Another method that works better in some dogs is with puppy pads,what you do is either put in a gated off room,like the kitchen,and put the pads down,and when the dog even looks like he might go,place him on the pads,even if he is starting to go-even if he is just sniffing a lot,put him on the pads

Then once he gets the concept of going on the pads,start moving the pads towords the door-and that usually moves them outside

Sometimes,dogs just don't work out-but rather then having him put down,either return him,or surrender him to your local no kill shelter,as one dog that doesn't work for you,might work for someone else.Hopefully,the puppy pads will work.I too had a dog that I had to return to the breeder over housetraining issues and we tried for 7 months,with no luck

Good luck-this method might work better with him,as it does for a lot of dogs