So if laid out properly, the layout-list-order portion really should be effortless, requiring no active work to recall. This is why picking unique and distinct and most of all familiar landmarks along your path and making your path consistent is very important, especially when in the early stages of learning the technique. You want the navigational and spacial part to be second nature.
The phrasing you used here is interesting:
I bolded “placed” because a common thing with newer folks or folks who haven’t really “unlocked” the power of a memory palace yet is that they approach the locations as static stages or backdrops where their mnemonic imagery simply “is.”
When you use a memory palace to aid in recall, the location is THE thing that you KNOW you will accurately recall. So it should provide a clear, active, and memorable link to whatever your mnemonic elements are that you want to store there.
I like to use an example of a front door of a house as a location and a tiger as the image you want to remember. If you imagine your front door opening and there is just a tiger sitting there, this may not stick well. (Think about your room and shih tzu example… "Ok its my room. What was in it? What happened there?) With nothing clear to get you from door to tiger, it is a weak image.
Compare this to picturing your front door suddenly growing tiger striped fur and roaring as claw marks come scraping across it, then the door shatters as a tiger comes bursting through it. Now if you are presented with the door and need to remember what was going on with it, I think you are much more likely to recall that metamorphosis and action versus just the door opening and revealing the tiger.
Locations can be active participants and take a more direct role in the cause/effect animation of a scene that increases its memorability. Maybe give something like that a try with the elements that you need to be able to link and recall.