diff --git a/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate.go b/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate.go
index 873c4a06..383c0f01 100644
--- a/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate.go
+++ b/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate.go
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ package docker
 import (
 	"context"
 	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/containerd/containerd/log"
@@ -44,10 +46,16 @@ import (
 
 // TranslateNodeToContainer translates a k3d node specification to a docker container representation
 func TranslateNodeToContainer(node *k3d.Node) (*NodeInDocker, error) {
+	init := true
+	if disableInit, err := strconv.ParseBool(os.Getenv("K3D_DEBUG_DISABLE_DOCKER_INIT")); err == nil && disableInit {
+		l.Log().Traceln("docker-init disabled for all containers")
+		init = false
+	}
+
 	/* initialize everything that we need */
 	containerConfig := docker.Config{}
 	hostConfig := docker.HostConfig{
-		Init:       &[]bool{true}[0],
+		Init:       &init,
 		ExtraHosts: node.ExtraHosts,
 	}
 	networkingConfig := network.NetworkingConfig{}
diff --git a/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate_test.go b/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate_test.go
index 43b66168..6f13172b 100644
--- a/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate_test.go
+++ b/pkg/runtimes/docker/translate_test.go
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ THE SOFTWARE.
 package docker
 
 import (
+	"os"
+	"strconv"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/go-test/deep"
@@ -58,6 +60,9 @@ func TestTranslateNodeToContainer(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	init := true
+	if disableInit, err := strconv.ParseBool(os.Getenv("K3D_DEBUG_DISABLE_DOCKER_INIT")); err == nil && disableInit {
+		init = false
+	}
 
 	expectedRepresentation := &NodeInDocker{
 		ContainerConfig: container.Config{