diff --git a/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a7656f072
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R-package/tests/testthat/test_helpers.R
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+context('Test helper functions')
+
+require(xgboost)
+
+data(agaricus.train, package='xgboost')
+data(agaricus.test, package='xgboost')
+train <- agaricus.train
+test <- agaricus.test
+
+bst <- xgboost(data = train$data, label = train$label, max.depth = 2, 
+               eta = 1, nthread = 2, nround = 2,objective = "binary:logistic")
+
+test_that("dump works", {
+  capture.output(print(xgb.dump(bst)))
+})
+
+