diff --git a/canopen/sdo/client.py b/canopen/sdo/client.py
index 77b7ac9f..519bbd5f 100644
--- a/canopen/sdo/client.py
+++ b/canopen/sdo/client.py
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ class SdoClient(SdoBase):
     #: Seconds to wait before sending a request, for rate limiting
     PAUSE_BEFORE_SEND = 0.0
 
-    #: Seconds to wait after sending a request
-    PAUSE_AFTER_SEND = 0.1
+    #: Seconds to wait before retrying a request after a send error
+    RETRY_DELAY = 0.1
 
     def __init__(self, rx_cobid, tx_cobid, od):
         """
@@ -45,10 +45,10 @@ def on_response(self, can_id, data, timestamp):
 
     def send_request(self, request):
         retries_left = self.MAX_RETRIES
+        if self.PAUSE_BEFORE_SEND:
+            time.sleep(self.PAUSE_BEFORE_SEND)
         while True:
             try:
-                if self.PAUSE_BEFORE_SEND:
-                    time.sleep(self.PAUSE_BEFORE_SEND)
                 self.network.send_message(self.rx_cobid, request)
             except CanError as e:
                 # Could be a buffer overflow. Wait some time before trying again
@@ -56,8 +56,8 @@ def send_request(self, request):
                 if not retries_left:
                     raise
                 logger.info(str(e))
-                if self.PAUSE_AFTER_SEND:
-                    time.sleep(self.PAUSE_AFTER_SEND)
+                if self.RETRY_DELAY:
+                    time.sleep(self.RETRY_DELAY)
             else:
                 break