diff --git a/lib/guard/listener.rb b/lib/guard/listener.rb
index 1a8eeaf4f..7dbe3cbdd 100644
--- a/lib/guard/listener.rb
+++ b/lib/guard/listener.rb
@@ -9,8 +9,9 @@ module Guard
   autoload :Polling, 'guard/listeners/polling'
 
   class Listener
+    DefaultIgnorePaths = %w[. .. .bundle .git log tmp vendor]
     
-    attr_reader :directory
+    attr_reader :directory, :ignore_paths
 
     def self.select_and_init(*a)
       if mac? && Darwin.usable?
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ def initialize(directory=Dir.pwd, options={})
       @directory           = directory.to_s
       @sha1_checksums_hash = {}
       @relativize_paths    = options.fetch(:relativize_paths, true)
+      @ignore_paths        = options.fetch(:ignore_paths, DefaultIgnorePaths)
       update_last_event
     end
 
@@ -81,10 +83,8 @@ def relativize_paths?
   private
 
     def potentially_modified_files(dirs, options={})
-      paths = Dir.glob(dirs.map { |d| "#{d.sub(%r{/+$}, '')}/*" }, File::FNM_DOTMATCH).reject do |path|
-        %w[. .. .bundle .git log tmp vendor].include?(File.basename(path))
-      end
-
+      paths = exclude_ignored_paths_from_dirs(dirs)
+      
       if options[:all]
         paths.inject([]) do |array, path|
           if File.file?(path)
@@ -99,6 +99,12 @@ def potentially_modified_files(dirs, options={})
       end
     end
 
+    def exclude_ignored_paths_from_dirs(dirs)
+      paths = Dir.glob(dirs.map { |d| "#{d.sub(%r{/+$}, '')}/*" }, File::FNM_DOTMATCH).reject do |path|
+        @ignore_paths.include?(File.basename(path))
+      end
+    end
+
     # Depending on the filesystem, mtime is probably only precise to the second, so round
     # both values down to the second for the comparison.
     def file_modified?(path)
diff --git a/spec/guard/listener_spec.rb b/spec/guard/listener_spec.rb
index e9ae26b34..313203016 100644
--- a/spec/guard/listener_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/guard/listener_spec.rb
@@ -160,5 +160,16 @@
     end
 
   end
+  
+  describe "#ignore_paths" do
+    it "defaults to the default ignore paths" do
+      subject.new.ignore_paths.should == Guard::Listener::DefaultIgnorePaths
+    end
+    
+    it "can be set via :ignore_paths option" do
+      listener = subject.new 'path', :ignore_paths => ['foo', 'bar']
+      listener.ignore_paths.should == ['foo', 'bar']
+    end
+  end
 
 end