Transient behaviors of pulse breaking and recovering in a dispersion-managed mode-locked Yb fiber laser

•Transformation from stretched pulses to dissipative solitons in a mode-locked Yb fiber laser is reported for the first time.•Overdriven nonlinear effect triggers wave breaking of SPs, and improved NCD originated from wavelength shift helps self-recovering of DSs.•Numerical simulations confirm experimental observations and bring insights to the understanding of transient nonlinear dynamics.