diff --git a/ADAPTERS.md b/ADAPTERS.md
index 9e0a8b8..f44ee0f 100644
--- a/ADAPTERS.md
+++ b/ADAPTERS.md
@@ -70,12 +70,12 @@ DatabaseCleaner[:orm_name].strategy = :transaction
 
 ### Strategy classes
 
-Each strategy class can inherit from DatabaseCleaner::Strategy to get it most of the way there. If you do, you only need to define one method!
+Each strategy class **must** inherit from `DatabaseCleaner::Strategy`.
 
-Each strategy **must** have the following instance methods
+Each strategy **must** have the following instance methods:
   *  `#clean` -- where the cleaning happens
 
-Optionally, depending on how your strategy works you may define
+Optionally, depending on how your strategy works you may also need to define
   *  `#start` -- if your strategy is transactional, this is where you would start the database transaction that `#clean` later rolls back.
 
 Given that we're creating a strategy for truncation, you may end up with something like the following class:
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ end
 
 ### What's next
 
-Now you should be set up to with your own database_cleaner ORM adapter.
+Now you should be all set up with your very own database_cleaner ORM adapter!
 Also, don't forget to take a look at the already created adapters, if you encounter any problems.
 
 When you are done with your adapter gem, only a few things left to do
diff --git a/lib/database_cleaner/cleaner.rb b/lib/database_cleaner/cleaner.rb
index 96fc030..de5f453 100644
--- a/lib/database_cleaner/cleaner.rb
+++ b/lib/database_cleaner/cleaner.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 require 'database_cleaner/deprecation'
 require 'database_cleaner/null_strategy'
 require 'database_cleaner/safeguard'
+require 'database_cleaner/strategy'
 require 'forwardable'
 
 module DatabaseCleaner
@@ -8,9 +9,15 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
 
   class Cleaner
     def self.available_strategies(orm_module)
-      # introspect publically available constants to get list of strategies, leaving out common but obviously non-strategy constants.
-      # if you're writing an adapter and this method is finding a constant in it that is not a valid strategy, consider making it private with Module#private_constant.
-      (orm_module.constants - [:Base, :VERSION]).map(&:downcase)
+      # introspect publically available constants for descendents of Strategy to get list of strategies
+      # ignore classes named Base, because its a common name for a shared base class that adds ORM access stuff to Strategy before being inherited by final concrete class
+      # if you're writing an adapter and this method is falsely returning an internal constant that isn't a valid strategy, consider making it private with Module#private_constant.
+      orm_module.constants.select do |constant_name|
+        ancestors = orm_module.const_get(constant_name).ancestors rescue []
+        ancestors.include?(DatabaseCleaner::Strategy)
+      end.map do |constant_name|
+        underscore(constant_name).to_sym
+      end - [:base]
     end
 
     include Comparable
@@ -94,6 +101,8 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
       DatabaseCleaner.const_get(orm_module_name)
     end
 
+    # copied from ActiveSupport to avoid adding it as a dependency
+
     def camelize(term)
       string = term.to_s
       string = string.sub(/^[a-z\d]*/) { |match| match.capitalize }
@@ -101,5 +110,16 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
       string.gsub!("/", "::")
       string
     end
+
+    def self.underscore(camel_cased_word)
+      return camel_cased_word unless /[A-Z-]|::/.match?(camel_cased_word)
+      word = camel_cased_word.to_s.gsub("::", "/")
+      word.gsub!(/([A-Z\d]+)([A-Z][a-z])/, '\1_\2')
+      word.gsub!(/([a-z\d])([A-Z])/, '\1_\2')
+      word.tr!("-", "_")
+      word.downcase!
+      word
+    end
+    private_class_method :underscore
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/database_cleaner/cleaner_spec.rb b/spec/database_cleaner/cleaner_spec.rb
index 94f08da..ef86aca 100644
--- a/spec/database_cleaner/cleaner_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/database_cleaner/cleaner_spec.rb
@@ -89,8 +89,8 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
     describe "clean_with" do
       subject(:cleaner) { Cleaner.new(:active_record) }
 
-      let(:strategy_class) { Class.new }
-      let(:strategy) { double }
+      let(:strategy_class) { Class.new(DatabaseCleaner::Strategy) }
+      let(:strategy) { strategy_class.new }
       before { allow(strategy_class).to receive(:new).and_return(strategy) }
 
       before do
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
     describe "strategy=" do
       subject(:cleaner) { Cleaner.new(:active_record) }
 
-      let(:strategy_class) { Class.new }
+      let(:strategy_class) { Class.new(DatabaseCleaner::Strategy) }
       let(:orm_module) { Module.new }
 
       before do
@@ -125,9 +125,10 @@ module DatabaseCleaner
         stub_const "DatabaseCleaner::ActiveRecord::Truncation", strategy_class
         # stub consts that shouldn't show up in strategy list
         stub_const "DatabaseCleaner::ActiveRecord::VERSION", "2.0.0"
-        stub_const "DatabaseCleaner::ActiveRecord::Base", Module.new
         stub_const "DatabaseCleaner::ActiveRecord::Helpers", Module.new
-        orm_module.private_constant :Helpers
+        stub_const "DatabaseCleaner::ActiveRecord::Base", Class.new(strategy_class)
+        stub_const "DatabaseCleaner::ActiveRecord::ExtendedBase", Class.new(strategy_class)
+        orm_module.private_constant :ExtendedBase
       end
 
       it "should look up and create a the named strategy for the current ORM" do