So, after my first 2 monsters, I find that I am having trouble getting/keeping my Loyalty up. Since I haven't thus far had real success figuring out a lot of the items, I haven't been able to use any of them effectively to help this problem. So, I thought I would start by posting my observations about what has really caused a portion of my problem.

1) Freezing your monster appears to cause a loss of 20 loyalty.

This was probably my biggest issue with my first monster. I froze her frequently so that I could go have fun at the Shrine. I couldn't keep her loyalty up at all. because I didn;t realize that I was losing loyalty for freezing.

2) Resetting your DS when you are not at the main screen will cause a loss of 10 loyalty.

I discovered this with my second monster who was losing loyalty, but I couldn't figure out when. I got into a 8 monster ladder tourney and lost in the second fight. I was doing to tourney to fill out my "won" tournament list, so nothing less than a win was acceptable. When I turned my ds back on, I got the message from my assistant (which looked to me like it was just a suggestion that I should Save and not reset). I looked at my monster's loyalty before entering the tourney again (because I was having trouble with him obeying orders) and discovered it had dropped from 45 to 35.

If folks can confirm my findings here, I will treat them as canon and adjust my play style accordingly. I would also like to hear suggestions about raising loyalty. My second monster is almost dead and I can't seem to get higher than about 45-50 loyalty. (of course, this monster has suffered some loyalty losses due to the above factors, so that has played a part in it. It's a Durahan/Joker, so he like discipline, which make gaining loyalty easier, I feel.)

You know, that actually explains a lot. Whilst going abouts my
tests, I reset frequently, and found that my first two monsters
fooled around in battle their entire lives. It seems that I
misinterpreted one of the status screen items as loyalty, but I can't
say with absolute certainty at this point. I'll give it a look-see later.

Based on my experiences, though, I'd say you're right on the
money.

The monster status screen has 2 numbers in the lower right corner of screen 1. The top one is Loyalty (The Kanji is for Trust, IIRC). The one below is for Fame.

That first screen lays out something like this:

Name: oooooooo
Monster: (breedname) ICON X ICON
Age: (X years Y Months) Rank: (E-S)
Body Shape?: (something) Temperment?: (something)
Likes: (likes..) Loyalty: (00)
Dislikes: (hates..) Fame: (100)

I am still trying to figure out the shape/temperment stuff..

"Body shape" has been called form/figure in previous games. Basically, it's whether your monster's thin, normal, or fat.

Kanjusei (the one you called "temperament") translates to "sensitivity" according to my dictionary. It's discussed a little in the Tips thread.

To stay on topic, I've noticed that my monsters' loyalty increases by about 3 when I give it the item it says it likes on the status screen (it also decreases when I give it the item it dislikes). Because you can give your monster an infinite amount of items each week, I found this helpful to raise loyalty quickly when I'd been resetting too much. I don't think this affects your raising policy from what I've observed, but I could be wrong.

Already noted, long ago...