diff --git a/rethinkdb/utils_common.py b/rethinkdb/utils_common.py
index 9aba3732..b0755511 100644
--- a/rethinkdb/utils_common.py
+++ b/rethinkdb/utils_common.py
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ def check_minimum_version(options, minimum_version="1.6", raise_exception=True):
 
 
 DbTable = collections.namedtuple("DbTable", ["db", "table"])
-_tableNameRegex = re.compile(r"^(?P<db>\w+)(\.(?P<table>\w+))?$")
+_tableNameRegex = re.compile(r"^(?P<db>[\w-]+)(\.(?P<table>[\w-]+))?$")
 
 
 class CommonOptionsParser(optparse.OptionParser, object):