Ah, yeah, if you didn't have those it makes sense that you found it more difficult.
One thing I originally had in my notes was that "Do Nothing" was pointless when your monsters can Defend every turn, but what I didn't notice was that doing so results in the interest meter going down, which can mess up your taming efforts. It does in fact become a bit of a strategic element where you can keep the bar exactly where you want it through a combination of Agitate and either defending or Doing Nothing, which I eventually found quite fun.