diff --git a/dev/user.clj b/dev/user.clj
index 789214a..76db850 100644
--- a/dev/user.clj
+++ b/dev/user.clj
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
   (pg/open-db {:hostname "localhost"
                :database "postgres"
                :username "postgres"
-               :password "postgres"}))
+               :password "postgres"
+               :validation-query "select 1"}))
 
 (defn reload []
   (repl/refresh))
diff --git a/project.clj b/project.clj
index 5afd892..b53815f 100644
--- a/project.clj
+++ b/project.clj
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
         :url "http://github.com/alaisi/postgres.async.git"}
   :dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.6.0"]
                  [org.clojure/core.async "0.1.346.0-17112a-alpha"]
-                 [com.github.alaisi.pgasync/postgres-async-driver "0.6"]
+                 [com.github.alaisi.pgasync/postgres-async-driver "0.7-SNAPSHOT"]
                  [cheshire "5.5.0" :scope "provided"]]
   :lein-release {:deploy-via :clojars}
   :global-vars {*warn-on-reflection* true}
diff --git a/src/postgres/async.clj b/src/postgres/async.clj
index 098fb26..4ee5979 100644
--- a/src/postgres/async.clj
+++ b/src/postgres/async.clj
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@
 
 (defn open-db
   "Creates a db connection pool"
-  [{:keys [hostname port username password database pool-size ssl] :as config}]
+  [{:keys [hostname port username password database pool-size ssl validation-query]
+    :as config}]
   (doseq [param [:hostname :username :password :database]]
     (when (nil? (param config))
       (throw (IllegalArgumentException. (str param " is required")))))
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@
       (.password password)
       (.ssl (boolean ssl))
       (.poolSize (or pool-size 25))
+      (.validationQuery validation-query)
       (.dataConverter (create-converter))
       (.build)))