diff --git a/tests/unit/cli/docker_client_test.py b/tests/unit/cli/docker_client_test.py
index 941aed4f4..74e0f9c8f 100644
--- a/tests/unit/cli/docker_client_test.py
+++ b/tests/unit/cli/docker_client_test.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import docker
 import pytest
 
 import compose
+from compose import const
 from compose.cli import errors
 from compose.cli.docker_client import docker_client
 from compose.cli.docker_client import get_tls_version
@@ -23,18 +24,18 @@ class DockerClientTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
                 del os.environ['HOME']
             except KeyError:
                 pass
-            docker_client(os.environ)
+            docker_client(os.environ, version=const.API_VERSIONS[const.COMPOSE_SPEC])
 
     @mock.patch.dict(os.environ)
     def test_docker_client_with_custom_timeout(self):
         os.environ['COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT'] = '123'
-        client = docker_client(os.environ)
+        client = docker_client(os.environ, version=const.API_VERSIONS[const.COMPOSE_SPEC])
         assert client.timeout == 123
 
     @mock.patch.dict(os.environ)
     def test_custom_timeout_error(self):
         os.environ['COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT'] = '123'
-        client = docker_client(os.environ)
+        client = docker_client(os.environ, version=const.API_VERSIONS[const.COMPOSE_SPEC])
 
         with mock.patch('compose.cli.errors.log') as fake_log:
             with pytest.raises(errors.ConnectionError):
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ class DockerClientTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         assert '123' in fake_log.error.call_args[0][0]
 
     def test_user_agent(self):
-        client = docker_client(os.environ)
+        client = docker_client(os.environ, version=const.API_VERSIONS[const.COMPOSE_SPEC])
         expected = "docker-compose/{} docker-py/{} {}/{}".format(
             compose.__version__,
             docker.__version__,