diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php
index e8bb8ce47..d4aff352a 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/UnitOfWork.php
@@ -519,9 +519,11 @@ class UnitOfWork implements PropertyChangedListener
                 continue;
             }
 
-            // If change tracking is explicit, then only compute changes on explicitly saved entities
+            // If change tracking is explicit, then only compute changes on explicitly persisted entities
             $entitiesToProcess = $class->isChangeTrackingDeferredExplicit() ?
-                    $this->_scheduledForDirtyCheck[$className] : $entities;
+                    (isset($this->_scheduledForDirtyCheck[$className]) ?
+                        $this->_scheduledForDirtyCheck[$className] : array())
+                    : $entities;
 
             foreach ($entitiesToProcess as $entity) {
                 // Ignore uninitialized proxy objects
@@ -1927,7 +1929,7 @@ class UnitOfWork implements PropertyChangedListener
     public function scheduleForDirtyCheck($entity)
     {
         $rootClassName = $this->_em->getClassMetadata(get_class($entity))->rootEntityName;
-        $this->_scheduledForDirtyCheck[$rootClassName] = $entity;
+        $this->_scheduledForDirtyCheck[$rootClassName][] = $entity;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC444Test.php b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC444Test.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4257c7376
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC444Test.php
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Doctrine\Tests\ORM\Functional\Ticket;
+
+require_once __DIR__ . '/../../../TestInit.php';
+
+class DDC444Test extends \Doctrine\Tests\OrmFunctionalTestCase
+{
+    public function setUp()
+    {
+        parent::setUp();
+        $this->_schemaTool->createSchema(array(
+            $this->_em->getClassMetadata(__NAMESPACE__ . '\DDC444User'),
+        ));
+    }
+
+    public function testExplicitPolicy()
+    {
+        $classname = __NAMESPACE__ . "\DDC444User";
+
+        $u = new $classname;
+        $u->name = "Initial value";
+
+        $this->_em->persist($u);
+        $this->_em->flush();
+        $this->_em->clear();
+
+        $q = $this->_em->createQuery("SELECT u FROM $classname u");
+        $u = $q->getSingleResult();
+        $this->assertEquals("Initial value", $u->name);
+
+        $u->name = "Modified value";
+
+        // This should be NOOP as the change hasn't been persisted
+        $this->_em->flush();
+        $this->_em->clear();
+
+
+        $u = $this->_em->createQuery("SELECT u FROM $classname u");
+        $u = $q->getSingleResult();
+
+        $this->assertEquals("Initial value", $u->name);
+
+
+        $u->name = "Modified value";
+        $this->_em->persist($u);
+        // Now we however persisted it, and this should have updated our friend
+        $this->_em->flush();
+
+        $q = $this->_em->createQuery("SELECT u FROM $classname u");
+        $u = $q->getSingleResult();
+
+        $this->assertEquals("Modified value", $u->name);
+    }
+}
+
+
+/**
+ * @Entity @Table(name="ddc444")
+ * @ChangeTrackingPolicy("DEFERRED_EXPLICIT")
+ */
+class DDC444User
+{ 
+    /**
+     * @Id @Column(name="id", type="integer") 
+     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
+     */
+    public $id;
+    
+    /**
+     * @Column(name="name", type="string")
+     */
+    public $name;
+}
+
+