kitty's stressed behavior stopped when i stopped rewarding it
the sit i'm doing now is for a very intelligent and demanding cat. the owners warned me that she would wake them up at all hours so they usually keep her locked downstairs at night, but that it wasn't strictly necessary.
she was yowling the first night and i felt bad so i let her up. big mistake for me, as even though i had my bedroom door closed, she was utterly body slamming it, jumping for the doorknob, meowing super loudly for an early morning breakfast, so i got pretty bad sleep then. she also gets into cabinets which sounds like someone breaking in with how she slams them!
it was only about that bad the first night though. i decided to tough it out, and waited for a long lull in her doing anything before getting up and giving her brekkie, and same the next day.
its been a week now and she no longer tries to bust down the door nor meow desperately into the night. i've noticed this with dogs i've sat sometimes, too - for example, if they're leash pullers, they often learn to stop with me simply because i use the method of pull = we're going to stand still for a moment. i feel for people not wanting to be strict with their pets/wanna give in instantly to what they want but i think kitty's distress level is actually lower overall rn. (plus she has a good amount of weight she could stand to lose...)