Funny enough, I recently stumbled across some of my old Dish bills from a time period when I was doing exactly that. I was also paying the Dish bill in advance and running a credit balance on my account for most of that time, though. Dish did not mail a paper bill in months when there was a credit balance, so I am not sure exactly how many months passed between pauses. Also, the rules could have changed (and most likely did) several times during the 17 years or so that have passed in the meantime since then.
If Dish does not let you go back on Pause again right away, I can recommend some cheap package options if you just want to keep the account active with bare minimum service, until you are allowed to do another Pause again. You could try the $15 Locals Only option, if Dish will let you get it. There are also $15 International Basic and Chinese Basic options. Those two packages also require you to add an international package add-on to qualify for either of them. I can recommend a cheap international add-on that would still make the total price lower than Welcome Pack, if you are interested.