Demand functions are used in an attempt to measure animal motivation. In the current study, demand functions were used to assess the effect of deprivation of locomotion on the motivation to perform locomotor behaviour in dairy calves. However, when animals are deprived, there is also a pause in testing, which may be confounded with the animals’ ability to respond to the operant task. The objective of this study was to determine if the motivation to perform locomotor behaviour was consistent when the pause in operant testing varied. More specifically, the authors wanted to determine if there was a decline in the calves’ ability to respond operantly for access to an exercise arena, where it could increase its locomotor behaviour. A long pause (4 days) and a short pause (1 day) in operant testing were compared. There were three fixed ratios (FR 8, 16, or 24), which indicate the number of times the calves have to press a lever to gain access to the exercise arena. The results indicated that a pause of 1 or 4 days in operant testing did not affect the demand function based on number of rewards per session or the demand function based on overall time calves spent galloping/bucking during the rewards. Also, the length of pause in operant testing did not affect the median latency to press the panel after entering the start box or the median interval between successive number of times pressing the panel. In conclusion, responding during operant sessions was not adversely affected by increasing the number of days from 1 to 4 between operant testing.