diff --git a/TESTING.rst b/TESTING.rst
index f5ca3bb3ee..d99696f8bf 100644
--- a/TESTING.rst
+++ b/TESTING.rst
@@ -184,7 +184,22 @@ overwritten during the next tox run.
 Post-mortem debugging
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Setting OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUG=1 in the shell environment will ensure
-that pdb.post_mortem() will be invoked on test failure::
+Setting OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUGGER in the shell environment will ensure
+that the debugger .post_mortem() method will be invoked on test failure::
 
-    $ OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUG=1 ./run_tests.sh -d [test module path]
+    $ OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUGGER=pdb ./run_tests.sh -d [test module path]
+
+Supported debuggers are pdb, and pudb. Pudb is full-screen, console-based
+visual debugger for Python which let you inspect variables, the stack,
+and breakpoints in a very visual way, keeping a high degree of compatibility
+with pdb::
+
+    $ ./.venv/bin/pip install pudb
+
+    $ OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUGGER=pudb ./run_tests.sh -d [test module path]
+
+References
+==========
+
+.. [#pudb] PUDB debugger:
+   https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pudb
diff --git a/neutron/tests/base.py b/neutron/tests/base.py
index dae1320de5..b4bd93a4cd 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/base.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/base.py
@@ -73,8 +73,10 @@ class BaseTestCase(testtools.TestCase):
         super(BaseTestCase, self).setUp()
 
         # Configure this first to ensure pm debugging support for setUp()
-        if os.environ.get('OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUG') in TRUE_STRING:
-            self.addOnException(post_mortem_debug.exception_handler)
+        debugger = os.environ.get('OS_POST_MORTEM_DEBUGGER')
+        if debugger:
+            self.addOnException(post_mortem_debug.get_exception_handler(
+                debugger))
 
         if os.environ.get('OS_DEBUG') in TRUE_STRING:
             _level = std_logging.DEBUG
diff --git a/neutron/tests/post_mortem_debug.py b/neutron/tests/post_mortem_debug.py
index 70b99412b0..8e6ac61a2c 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/post_mortem_debug.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/post_mortem_debug.py
@@ -13,18 +13,38 @@
 # License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-import pdb
+import functools
 import traceback
 
+DEFAULT_DEBUGGER = 'pdb'
 
-def exception_handler(exc_info):
+
+def get_exception_handler(debugger_name=None):
+    debugger = _get_debugger(debugger_name or DEFAULT_DEBUGGER)
+    return functools.partial(_exception_handler, debugger)
+
+
+def _get_debugger(debugger_name):
+    try:
+        debugger = __import__(debugger_name)
+        if 'post_mortem' in dir(debugger):
+            return debugger
+    except ImportError:
+        raise ValueError(
+            _("can't import %s module as a post mortem debugger") %
+            debugger_name)
+    raise ValueError(
+        _("%s is not a supported post mortem debugger") % debugger_name)
+
+
+def _exception_handler(debugger, exc_info):
     """Exception handler enabling post-mortem debugging.
 
     A class extending testtools.TestCase can add this handler in setUp():
 
         self.addOnException(post_mortem_debug.exception_handler)
 
-    When an exception occurs, the user will be dropped into a pdb
+    When an exception occurs, the user will be dropped into a debugger
     session in the execution environment of the failure.
 
     Frames associated with the testing framework are excluded so that
@@ -37,7 +57,7 @@ def exception_handler(exc_info):
     if ignored_traceback:
         tb = FilteredTraceback(tb, ignored_traceback)
     traceback.print_exception(exc_info[0], exc_info[1], tb)
-    pdb.post_mortem(tb)
+    debugger.post_mortem(tb)
 
 
 def get_ignored_traceback(tb):
diff --git a/neutron/tests/unit/test_post_mortem_debug.py b/neutron/tests/unit/test_post_mortem_debug.py
index c42a3d68fb..3237558c17 100644
--- a/neutron/tests/unit/test_post_mortem_debug.py
+++ b/neutron/tests/unit/test_post_mortem_debug.py
@@ -34,13 +34,26 @@ class TestTesttoolsExceptionHandler(base.BaseTestCase):
                 with mock.patch.object(post_mortem_debug,
                                        'get_ignored_traceback',
                                        return_value=mock.Mock()):
-                    post_mortem_debug.exception_handler(exc_info)
+                    post_mortem_debug.get_exception_handler()(exc_info)
 
         # traceback will become post_mortem_debug.FilteredTraceback
         filtered_exc_info = (exc_info[0], exc_info[1], mock.ANY)
         mock_print_exception.assert_called_once_with(*filtered_exc_info)
         mock_post_mortem.assert_called_once_with(mock.ANY)
 
+    def test__get_debugger(self):
+        def import_mock(name, *args):
+            mod_mock = mock.Mock()
+            mod_mock.__name__ = name
+            mod_mock.post_mortem = mock.Mock()
+            return mod_mock
+
+        with mock.patch('__builtin__.__import__', side_effect=import_mock):
+                pdb_debugger = post_mortem_debug._get_debugger('pdb')
+                pudb_debugger = post_mortem_debug._get_debugger('pudb')
+                self.assertEqual('pdb', pdb_debugger.__name__)
+                self.assertEqual('pudb', pudb_debugger.__name__)
+
 
 class TestFilteredTraceback(base.BaseTestCase):