diff --git a/lib/sequella/plugin.rb b/lib/sequella/plugin.rb
index 8cdab24..1f795c2 100644
--- a/lib/sequella/plugin.rb
+++ b/lib/sequella/plugin.rb
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ class Plugin < Adhearsion::Plugin
       host        'localhost'      , :desc => 'host where the database is running'
       port        3306             , :desc => 'port where the database is listening'
       model_paths ['app/models']   , :desc => 'paths to model files to load', :transform => Proc.new {|v| Array(v)}
+      max_connections 4            , :desc => 'The maximum number of connections the connection pool will open'
+      pool_timeout    5            , :desc => ' The amount of seconds to wait to acquire a connection before raising a PoolTimeoutError'
     end
 
     run :sequella do
diff --git a/lib/sequella/service.rb b/lib/sequella/service.rb
index a4b2047..331d013 100644
--- a/lib/sequella/service.rb
+++ b/lib/sequella/service.rb
@@ -7,8 +7,11 @@ class << self
       # Start the Sequel connection with the configured database
       def start(config)
         params = config.to_hash.select { |k, v| !v.nil? }
+        # using sequel default values.
+        max_connections = params[:max_connections]||4
+        pool_timeout = params[:pool_timeout]||5
 
-        @@connection = establish_connection connection_string(params)
+        @@connection = establish_connection(connection_string(params),max_connections,pool_timeout)
         require_models(*params.delete(:model_paths))
 
         # Provide Sequel a handle on the Adhearsion logger
@@ -52,9 +55,9 @@ def qualify_path(path)
       # Start the Sequel connection with the configured database
       #
       # @param connection_uri [String] Connection URI for connecting to the database
-      def establish_connection(connection_uri)
+      def establish_connection(connection_uri, max_connections, pool_timeout)
         logger.info "Sequella connecting: #{connection_uri}"
-        ::Sequel.connect connection_uri
+        ::Sequel.connect connection_uri, :max_connections => max_connections, :pool_timeout => pool_timeout
       end
 
       ##
diff --git a/spec/sequella/service_spec.rb b/spec/sequella/service_spec.rb
index 8ebd39e..3578596 100644
--- a/spec/sequella/service_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/sequella/service_spec.rb
@@ -7,11 +7,29 @@
   describe '#start' do
     it 'should not raise an error if start attempted with a uri specified' do
       config = OpenStruct.new uri: 'postgres://user:password@localhost/blog'
-      subject.should_receive(:establish_connection).with(config.uri)
+      subject.should_receive(:establish_connection).with(config.uri,4,5)
       subject.should_receive(:require_models)
 
       expect { subject.start config.marshal_dump }.to_not raise_error
     end
+    it 'should pass configured pool value' do
+      connection_params = {
+        adapter: 'postgres',
+        host: 'localhost',
+        port: 5432,
+        database: 'test',
+        username: 'test-user',
+        password: 'password',
+        max_connections: 20,
+        pool_timeout: 10
+      }
+
+      subject.should_receive(:establish_connection).with('postgres://test-user:password@localhost:5432/test',20,10)
+      subject.should_receive(:require_models)
+
+      expect { subject.start connection_params }.to_not raise_error
+
+    end
   end
 
   describe '#connection_string' do