diff --git a/README.markdown b/README.markdown
index 6dce964..d674dd3 100644
--- a/README.markdown
+++ b/README.markdown
@@ -507,7 +507,7 @@ end
 DatabaseCleaner comes with safeguards against:
 
 * Running in production (checking for `ENV`, `RACK_ENV`, and `RAILS_ENV`)
-* Running against a remote database (checking for a `DATABASE_URL` that does not include `localhost`)
+* Running against a remote database (checking for a `DATABASE_URL` that does not include `localhost`, `.local` or `127.0.0.1`)
 
 Both safeguards can be disabled separately as follows.
 
diff --git a/lib/database_cleaner/safeguard.rb b/lib/database_cleaner/safeguard.rb
index 0c5e73d..55d04eb 100644
--- a/lib/database_cleaner/safeguard.rb
+++ b/lib/database_cleaner/safeguard.rb
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
     end
 
     class RemoteDatabaseUrl
-      LOCAL = %w(localhost 127.0.0.1 sqlite3:)
+      LOCAL = %w(localhost .local 127.0.0.1 sqlite3:)
 
       def run
         raise Error::RemoteDatabaseUrl if !skip? && given?
diff --git a/spec/database_cleaner/safeguard_spec.rb b/spec/database_cleaner/safeguard_spec.rb
index fa280a8..c2de148 100644
--- a/spec/database_cleaner/safeguard_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/database_cleaner/safeguard_spec.rb
@@ -28,6 +28,14 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
         end
       end
 
+      describe 'to a local tld url' do
+        let(:database_url) { 'postgres://postgres.local' }
+
+        it 'does not raise' do
+          expect { cleaner.start }.to_not raise_error
+        end
+      end
+
       describe 'to a 127.0.0.1 url' do
         let(:database_url) { 'postgres://127.0.0.1' }