I have been asked to consult for SEO on a website build and the developer is using wordPress for the website, which is going to be quite a large directory styled site.

I requested that the URL structure be domain.com/type/state/region/category/subcaregory - fairly standard for seo, however the developer says that WP doesnt allow a slug to be used twice so where there is a category or subcateogy the same in different stats/region it wont allow the structure to work, so the second instance would become domain.com/type/state/region/category/subcaregory-2 etc.

His idea around this is to add a 'type' suffix to each directory, it will make them unique therefore work, so his suggestion would make the url
domain.com/dogs/ca-dogs/los-angeles-dogs/large-dogs/german-shepard-dogs (where obviously dogs is the suffix)

By having 'dogs' in the URL 5 times, could this be considered as spam therefore cause the site to be penalized.

What are your thoughts