You can use the object as training on your own time and have the dog in a controlled environment when you can't supervise them.
I crate all our pups till 12 months of age, I've played with the timing with a few dogs and have about perfected it.
I work with them thru every aspect of training and will build free time in our house in short time sessions around 11 months, then when 12 months rolls around we allow free roam.
Recently finished this on our female and she has free roam of the house without issue.
Wish I read this post when we went thru this with my lab. It was a nightmare. We would feel bad crating her because she would act like the taz devil. So after her chewing on a tidy bowl .... eating a tube of A&D ointment, 2 sets of couches (thank goodness for insurance) and of course the COUNTLESS times we came home to her leaving our house looking like a landfill..... I put my foot down and made the crate my bestfriend. I used the crate to teach her what was appropriate. When we were gone she was in the crate... If she tore up the pillows we would sternly talk to her... pointing...saying no... and we would not reward her.. even if she did go to the crate on her own. She would get into that super submissiveness attitude. We would continue the same stern tone and then after the pointing to the mess saying no then straight to to the crate.
Now even when she was being good she was crated if we were not supervising. It wasn't until 18 mths that she stopped getting crated. I learned getting her to stop the garbage overall naughtiness wasn't like teaching her how to sit or stay. It reminded me of parenting for my kids. As soon as we thought she can be on her own she would let her loose and BAM! Hurricane Bailey would strike.
If you started crating and teaching from the beginning (or the sooner the better) that they have limitations and you are the boss not them then the easier it maybe to snip this is behavior. For Marco he has been crated since we got him. We just started letting him stay overnight uncrated. So far so good. But we help out by not leaving anything tempting in the trash lol.
Sorry for the long post!!! Hope it gets better good luck!!!
This is what happened to me.... I dunno if it is the proper approach but it worked for us.
