House training is far from the only reason to crate a young dog of this type. Until they get past the chewing/hyper puppy phase they can really be a disaster if left alone. Their size and athleticism really takes things to a whole new level.
Ziggy hated the crate and once she got pretty well house trained at a little over a year, I d started ttrying her in my room without it. One thing with Zig is, she loves her nylabone and as a pup I would praise her every time I saw her with it. When I first left her loose, I handed her her "nyla" and told her she was to watch it while I was gone. Which she did, and brought it to me when I walked through the door. I used that approach until recently when she had gotten to the point of falling asleep as I got ready tp leave.