diff --git a/.github/workflows/watchdog-stuck-jobs.yml b/.github/workflows/watchdog-stuck-jobs.yml
index 75ecdb5372..39d4577983 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/watchdog-stuck-jobs.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/watchdog-stuck-jobs.yml
@@ -312,7 +312,16 @@ jobs:
           # CEST and sits an hour earlier in local terms under CET.
           LIVENESS_HOURS=10
           HOUR=$(date -u +%-H)
-          if (( HOUR >= 17 && HOUR <= 21 )); then
+          # A manually disabled daily-regen is a deliberate pause (e.g. while a
+          # sequential backfill owns the rate limit), not a starved schedule:
+          # its cron does not tick at all, so the gap grows without bound, and
+          # `gh workflow run` on a disabled workflow fails with HTTP 422 — which
+          # under `set -e` takes the whole scan down after A and B already ran.
+          REGEN_STATE=$(gh api "repos/${GH_REPO}/actions/workflows/daily-regen.yml" \
+            --jq '.state' 2>/dev/null || echo unknown)
+          if [[ "$REGEN_STATE" != "active" ]]; then
+            echo "::notice::daily-regen liveness: workflow state is '${REGEN_STATE}', not active — rescue skipped"
+          elif (( HOUR >= 17 && HOUR <= 21 )); then
             echo "::notice::daily-regen liveness: inside/adjacent to quiet window (UTC hour $HOUR) — check skipped"
           else
             # --branch main: schedule runs (and rescue dispatches) live on the
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f6d315e1cd..e8b772cb82 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ aggregate instead: an italic *Catalog* line at the end of the version section an
   reads as "tried repeatedly, must be a genuine capability gap". It now names the counted
   failures and the window. Three pairs written off under the old wording on 2026-08-24
   succeeded on the very next dispatch (#10627).
+- **A disabled `daily-regen` no longer fails every watchdog scan** — the watchdog's
+  cron-liveness rescue read the growing silence of a manually disabled schedule as
+  starvation and tried to dispatch it; GitHub answers `workflow_dispatch` on a disabled
+  workflow with HTTP 422, so the scan step died under `set -e` after sections A and B had
+  already run, and the run reported failure. The rescue now checks the workflow's state
+  first and skips with a notice when it is not `active` (#10540).
 - **Image structured data carries the licensing fields Google recommends** — Search
   Console flagged every implementation page's `ImageObject` for missing `creator`,
   `copyrightNotice`, `creditText`, and `acquireLicensePage`. The bot-page JSON-LD now