diff --git a/container.go b/container.go
index 4a85dffb8f..0db6dfaa47 100644
--- a/container.go
+++ b/container.go
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ type Container interface {
 	Terminate(context.Context) error             // terminate the container
 	Logs(context.Context) (io.ReadCloser, error) // Get logs of the container
 	FollowOutput(LogConsumer)
-	StartLogProducer(context.Context) error
+	StartLogProducer(context.Context, ...LogProducerOption) error
 	StopLogProducer() error
 	Name(context.Context) (string, error)                        // get container name
 	State(context.Context) (*types.ContainerState, error)        // returns container's running state
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ type Container interface {
 	CopyDirToContainer(ctx context.Context, hostDirPath string, containerParentPath string, fileMode int64) error
 	CopyFileToContainer(ctx context.Context, hostFilePath string, containerFilePath string, fileMode int64) error
 	CopyFileFromContainer(ctx context.Context, filePath string) (io.ReadCloser, error)
+	GetLogProducerErrorChannel() <-chan error
 }
 
 // ImageBuildInfo defines what is needed to build an image
diff --git a/docker.go b/docker.go
index 252d94ec7c..bfa1d1c5ad 100644
--- a/docker.go
+++ b/docker.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
+	"sync"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/cenkalti/backoff/v4"
@@ -67,6 +68,9 @@ type DockerContainer struct {
 	raw               *types.ContainerJSON
 	stopProducer      chan bool
 	producerDone      chan bool
+	producerError     chan error
+	producerMutex     sync.Mutex
+	producerTimeout   *time.Duration
 	logger            Logging
 	lifecycleHooks    []ContainerLifecycleHooks
 }
@@ -612,19 +616,68 @@ func (c *DockerContainer) CopyToContainer(ctx context.Context, fileContent []byt
 	return nil
 }
 
+type LogProducerOption func(*DockerContainer)
+
+// WithLogProducerTimeout is a functional option that sets the timeout for the log producer.
+// If the timeout is lower than 5s or greater than 60s it will be set to 5s or 60s respectively.
+func WithLogProducerTimeout(timeout time.Duration) LogProducerOption {
+	return func(c *DockerContainer) {
+		c.producerTimeout = &timeout
+	}
+}
+
 // StartLogProducer will start a concurrent process that will continuously read logs
-// from the container and will send them to each added LogConsumer
-func (c *DockerContainer) StartLogProducer(ctx context.Context) error {
-	if c.stopProducer != nil {
-		return errors.New("log producer already started")
+// from the container and will send them to each added LogConsumer.
+// Default log producer timeout is 5s. It is used to set the context timeout
+// which means that each log-reading loop will last at least the specified timeout
+// and that it cannot be cancelled earlier.
+// Use functional option WithLogProducerTimeout() to override default timeout. If it's
+// lower than 5s and greater than 60s it will be set to 5s or 60s respectively.
+func (c *DockerContainer) StartLogProducer(ctx context.Context, opts ...LogProducerOption) error {
+	{
+		c.producerMutex.Lock()
+		defer c.producerMutex.Unlock()
+
+		if c.stopProducer != nil {
+			return errors.New("log producer already started")
+		}
+	}
+
+	for _, opt := range opts {
+		opt(c)
+	}
+
+	minProducerTimeout := time.Duration(5 * time.Second)
+	maxProducerTimeout := time.Duration(60 * time.Second)
+
+	if c.producerTimeout == nil {
+		c.producerTimeout = &minProducerTimeout
+	}
+
+	if *c.producerTimeout < minProducerTimeout {
+		c.producerTimeout = &minProducerTimeout
+	}
+
+	if *c.producerTimeout > maxProducerTimeout {
+		c.producerTimeout = &maxProducerTimeout
 	}
 
 	c.stopProducer = make(chan bool)
 	c.producerDone = make(chan bool)
+	c.producerError = make(chan error, 1)
 
-	go func(stop <-chan bool, done chan<- bool) {
+	go func(stop <-chan bool, done chan<- bool, errorCh chan error) {
 		// signal the producer is done once go routine exits, this prevents race conditions around start/stop
-		defer close(done)
+		// set c.stopProducer to nil so that it can be started again
+		defer func() {
+			defer c.producerMutex.Unlock()
+			close(done)
+			close(errorCh)
+			{
+				c.producerMutex.Lock()
+				c.stopProducer = nil
+			}
+		}()
 
 		since := ""
 		// if the socket is closed we will make additional logs request with updated Since timestamp
@@ -636,25 +689,20 @@ func (c *DockerContainer) StartLogProducer(ctx context.Context) error {
 			Since:      since,
 		}
 
-		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*5)
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, *c.producerTimeout)
 		defer cancel()
 
 		r, err := c.provider.client.ContainerLogs(ctx, c.GetContainerID(), options)
 		if err != nil {
-			// if we can't get the logs, panic, we can't return an error to anything
-			// from within this goroutine
-			panic(err)
+			errorCh <- err
+			return
 		}
 		defer c.provider.Close()
 
 		for {
 			select {
 			case <-stop:
-				err := r.Close()
-				if err != nil {
-					// we can't close the read closer, this should never happen
-					panic(err)
-				}
+				errorCh <- r.Close()
 				return
 			default:
 				h := make([]byte, 8)
@@ -710,7 +758,7 @@ func (c *DockerContainer) StartLogProducer(ctx context.Context) error {
 				}
 			}
 		}
-	}(c.stopProducer, c.producerDone)
+	}(c.stopProducer, c.producerDone, c.producerError)
 
 	return nil
 }
@@ -718,16 +766,25 @@ func (c *DockerContainer) StartLogProducer(ctx context.Context) error {
 // StopLogProducer will stop the concurrent process that is reading logs
 // and sending them to each added LogConsumer
 func (c *DockerContainer) StopLogProducer() error {
+	c.producerMutex.Lock()
+	defer c.producerMutex.Unlock()
 	if c.stopProducer != nil {
 		c.stopProducer <- true
 		// block until the producer is actually done in order to avoid strange races
 		<-c.producerDone
 		c.stopProducer = nil
 		c.producerDone = nil
+		return <-c.producerError
 	}
 	return nil
 }
 
+// GetLogProducerErrorChannel exposes the only way for the consumer
+// to be able to listen to errors and react to them.
+func (c *DockerContainer) GetLogProducerErrorChannel() <-chan error {
+	return c.producerError
+}
+
 // DockerNetwork represents a network started using Docker
 type DockerNetwork struct {
 	ID                string // Network ID from Docker
diff --git a/docs/features/follow_logs.md b/docs/features/follow_logs.md
index 4fa93cd01c..4269e27162 100644
--- a/docs/features/follow_logs.md
+++ b/docs/features/follow_logs.md
@@ -39,4 +39,59 @@ if err != nil {
 ```
 
 `LogProducer` is stopped in `c.Terminate()`. It can be done manually during container lifecycle
-using `c.StopLogProducer()`. For a particular container, only one `LogProducer` can be active at time
+using `c.StopLogProducer()`. For a particular container, only one `LogProducer` can be active at time.
+
+`StartLogProducer()` also accepts a functional parameter now used to set log producer timeout:
+```golang
+type LogProducerOption func(*DockerContainer)
+
+func WithLogProducerTimeout(timeout time.Duration) LogProducerOption {
+	return func(c *DockerContainer) {
+		c.producerTimeout = &timeout
+	}
+}
+
+// usage
+err := c.StartLogProducer(ctx, WithLogProducerTimeout(10*time.Second))
+if err != nil {
+	// do something with err
+}
+```
+
+If no parameter is passed a default timeout of 5 seconds will be used. Values below 5 seconds and above 60 seconds will
+be coerced to these boundary values.
+
+## Listening to errors
+
+When log producer fails to start within given timeout (causing a context deadline) or there's an error returned while closing the reader it will no longer panic, but instead will return an error over a channel. You can listen to it using `DockerContainer.GetLogProducerErrorChannel()` method:
+```golang
+func (c *DockerContainer) GetLogProducerErrorChannel() <-chan error {
+	return c.producerError
+}
+```
+
+This allows you to, for example, retry restarting log producer if it fails to start the first time. For example:
+
+```golang
+// start log producer normally
+err = container.StartLogProducer(ctx, WithLogProducerTimeout(10*time.Second))
+
+// listen to errors in a detached goroutine
+go func(done chan struct{}, timeout time.Duration, retryLimit int) {
+	for {
+		select {
+		case logErr := <-container.GetLogProducerErrorChannel():
+			if logErr != nil {
+				// do something with error
+				// for example, retry starting log producer 
+				// (here we retry it once, in real life you might want to retry it more times)
+				startErr := container.StartLogProducer(ctx, timeout)
+				if startErr != nil {
+					return 
+				}
+		case <-done:
+			return
+		}
+	}
+}(cons.logListeningDone, time.Duration(10*time.Second))
+```
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/logconsumer_test.go b/logconsumer_test.go
index c77f2602f8..3c0bef4a6c 100644
--- a/logconsumer_test.go
+++ b/logconsumer_test.go
@@ -458,3 +458,67 @@ func TestContainerLogsShouldBeWithoutStreamHeader(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 	assert.Equal(t, "0", strings.TrimSpace(string(b)))
 }
+
+func Test_StartLogProducerStillStartsWithTooLowTimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	req := ContainerRequest{
+		FromDockerfile: FromDockerfile{
+			Context:    "./testdata/",
+			Dockerfile: "echoserver.Dockerfile",
+		},
+		ExposedPorts: []string{"8080/tcp"},
+		WaitingFor:   wait.ForLog("ready"),
+	}
+
+	gReq := GenericContainerRequest{
+		ContainerRequest: req,
+		Started:          true,
+	}
+
+	c, err := GenericContainer(ctx, gReq)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	terminateContainerOnEnd(t, ctx, c)
+
+	g := TestLogConsumer{
+		Msgs:     []string{},
+		Done:     make(chan bool),
+		Accepted: devNullAcceptorChan(),
+	}
+
+	c.FollowOutput(&g)
+
+	err = c.StartLogProducer(ctx, WithLogProducerTimeout(4*time.Second))
+	require.NoError(t, err, "should still start with too low timeout")
+}
+
+func Test_StartLogProducerStillStartsWithTooHighTimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	req := ContainerRequest{
+		FromDockerfile: FromDockerfile{
+			Context:    "./testdata/",
+			Dockerfile: "echoserver.Dockerfile",
+		},
+		ExposedPorts: []string{"8080/tcp"},
+		WaitingFor:   wait.ForLog("ready"),
+	}
+
+	gReq := GenericContainerRequest{
+		ContainerRequest: req,
+		Started:          true,
+	}
+
+	c, err := GenericContainer(ctx, gReq)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	terminateContainerOnEnd(t, ctx, c)
+
+	g := TestLogConsumer{
+		Msgs:     []string{},
+		Done:     make(chan bool),
+		Accepted: devNullAcceptorChan(),
+	}
+
+	c.FollowOutput(&g)
+
+	err = c.StartLogProducer(ctx, WithLogProducerTimeout(61*time.Second))
+	require.NoError(t, err, "should still start with too high timeout")
+}