diff --git a/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_core.c b/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_core.c
index 461336c4519f..cec9b559647d 100644
--- a/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_core.c
+++ b/drivers/watchdog/watchdog_core.c
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ int watchdog_init_timeout(struct watchdog_device *wdd,
 	watchdog_check_min_max_timeout(wdd);
 
 	/* try to get the timeout module parameter first */
-	if (!watchdog_timeout_invalid(wdd, timeout_parm)) {
+	if (!watchdog_timeout_invalid(wdd, timeout_parm) && timeout_parm) {
 		wdd->timeout = timeout_parm;
 		return ret;
 	}
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ int watchdog_init_timeout(struct watchdog_device *wdd,
 	if (dev == NULL || dev->of_node == NULL)
 		return ret;
 	of_property_read_u32(dev->of_node, "timeout-sec", &t);
-	if (!watchdog_timeout_invalid(wdd, t))
+	if (!watchdog_timeout_invalid(wdd, t) && t)
 		wdd->timeout = t;
 	else
 		ret = -EINVAL;