diff --git a/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/dpo/chat_template.py b/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/dpo/chat_template.py
index 60333b33b..85490349b 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/dpo/chat_template.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/prompt_strategies/dpo/chat_template.py
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ def default(
             "role": role_map[sample[field_rejected][field_message_role]],
             "content": sample[field_rejected][field_message_content],
         }
+        dummy_user_message = {"role": "user", "content": "dummy"}
 
         result = {}
         result["prompt"] = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
@@ -63,7 +64,7 @@ def default(
         )
 
         result["chosen"] = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
-            [chosen],
+            [dummy_user_message, chosen],
             add_generation_prompt=False,
             chat_template=chat_template_string,
             tokenize=False,
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ def default(
         result["chosen"] = result["chosen"][chosen_strip_index:].rstrip()
 
         result["rejected"] = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(
-            [rejected],
+            [dummy_user_message, rejected],
             add_generation_prompt=False,
             chat_template=chat_template_string,
             tokenize=False,
diff --git a/tests/prompt_strategies/test_dpo_chat_templates.py b/tests/prompt_strategies/test_dpo_chat_templates.py
index 534249c4f..740edc22f 100644
--- a/tests/prompt_strategies/test_dpo_chat_templates.py
+++ b/tests/prompt_strategies/test_dpo_chat_templates.py
@@ -93,6 +93,13 @@ def fixture_phi3_tokenizer():
     return tokenizer
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(name="gemma_tokenizer")
+def fixture_gemma_tokenizer():
+    tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("unsloth/gemma-2b-it", revision="703fb4a")
+
+    return tokenizer
+
+
 class TestAssistantDPOChatTemplateLlama3:
     """
     Test class for assistant style datasets with llama-3 prompts using the chat_template strategy.
@@ -106,7 +113,7 @@ class TestAssistantDPOChatTemplateLlama3:
                     "chat_template": "llama3",
                     "datasets": [
                         {
-                            "chat_template": "llama3",
+                            "type": "chat_template",
                         }
                     ],
                 }
@@ -131,7 +138,7 @@ class TestAssistantDPOChatTemplateLlama3:
                     "chat_template": "llama3",
                     "datasets": [
                         {
-                            "chat_template": "llama3",
+                            "type": "chat_template",
                             "field_messages": "conversation",
                             "field_chosen": "better",
                             "field_rejected": "worse",
@@ -173,7 +180,6 @@ class TestAssistantDPOChatTemplatePhi3:
                     "datasets": [
                         {
                             "type": "chat_template",
-                            "chat_template": "tokenizer_default",
                         }
                     ],
                 }
@@ -190,5 +196,35 @@ class TestAssistantDPOChatTemplatePhi3:
         assert result["rejected"] == "party on<|end|>"
 
 
+class TestAssistantDPOChatTemplateGemma:
+    """
+    Test class for assistant style datasets with gemma prompts using the tokenizer's chat_template strategy.
+    """
+
+    def test_gemma_defaults(self, gemma_tokenizer, assistant_dataset):
+        # pylint: disable=duplicate-code
+        transform_fn = default(
+            DictDefault(
+                {
+                    "chat_template": "tokenizer_default",
+                    "datasets": [
+                        {
+                            "type": "chat_template",
+                        }
+                    ],
+                }
+            )
+        )
+        result = transform_fn(assistant_dataset[0], tokenizer=gemma_tokenizer)
+        assert result["prompt"] == (
+            "<bos><start_of_turn>user\nhello<end_of_turn>\n"
+            + "<start_of_turn>model\nhello<end_of_turn>\n"
+            + "<start_of_turn>user\ngoodbye<end_of_turn>\n"
+            + "<start_of_turn>model\n"
+        )
+        assert result["chosen"] == "goodbye<end_of_turn>"
+        assert result["rejected"] == "party on<end_of_turn>"
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()