diff --git a/watchdog/Gopkg.lock b/watchdog/Gopkg.lock
index e3c5dc73..581231fc 100644
--- a/watchdog/Gopkg.lock
+++ b/watchdog/Gopkg.lock
@@ -25,6 +25,14 @@
   revision = "c12348ce28de40eed0136aa2b644d0ee0650e56c"
   version = "v1.0.1"
 
+[[projects]]
+  branch = "master"
+  digest = "1:cc8e0046e1076991a51c3aa9ab4827b8bf1bf4d7715cd45a95888663c2d851e3"
+  name = "github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware"
+  packages = ["concurrency-limiter"]
+  pruneopts = "UT"
+  revision = "6a78c3a94beb2a99d6aa443bca21331653840a23"
+
 [[projects]]
   digest = "1:ef03fb1dae4d010196652653f00a8002e94c19bcabdc8ca5100a804ffef63a47"
   name = "github.com/prometheus/client_golang"
@@ -70,6 +78,7 @@
   analyzer-name = "dep"
   analyzer-version = 1
   input-imports = [
+    "github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/concurrency-limiter",
     "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus",
     "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promauto",
     "github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp",
diff --git a/watchdog/README.md b/watchdog/README.md
index 3792293a..6fed2001 100644
--- a/watchdog/README.md
+++ b/watchdog/README.md
@@ -102,6 +102,7 @@ The watchdog can be configured through environmental variables. You must always
 | `exec_timeout`         | Hard timeout for process exec'd for each incoming request (in seconds). Disabled if set to 0 |
 | `write_debug`          | Write all output, error messages, and additional information to the logs. Default is false |
 | `combine_output`       | True by default - combines stdout/stderr in function response, when set to false `stderr` is written to the container logs and stdout is used for function response |
+| `max_inflight`         | Limit the maximum number of requests in flight |
 
 ## Advanced / tuning
 
diff --git a/watchdog/handler.go b/watchdog/handler.go
index ac487b8d..61d6618a 100644
--- a/watchdog/handler.go
+++ b/watchdog/handler.go
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ import (
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
+	limiter "github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/concurrency-limiter"
+
 	"github.com/openfaas/faas/watchdog/types"
 )
 
@@ -294,8 +296,8 @@ func makeHealthHandler() func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request) {
 	}
 }
 
-func makeRequestHandler(config *WatchdogConfig) func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.Request) {
-	return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+func makeRequestHandler(config *WatchdogConfig) http.HandlerFunc {
+	handler := http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		switch r.Method {
 		case
 			http.MethodPost,
@@ -309,5 +311,6 @@ func makeRequestHandler(config *WatchdogConfig) func(http.ResponseWriter, *http.
 			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusMethodNotAllowed)
 
 		}
-	}
+	})
+	return limiter.NewConcurrencyLimiter(handler, config.maxInflight).ServeHTTP
 }
diff --git a/watchdog/metrics/metrics.go b/watchdog/metrics/metrics.go
index d5283d96..efdda8a6 100644
--- a/watchdog/metrics/metrics.go
+++ b/watchdog/metrics/metrics.go
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ func (m *MetricsServer) Serve(cancel chan bool) {
 
 // InstrumentHandler returns a handler which records HTTP requests
 // as they are made
-func InstrumentHandler(next http.HandlerFunc, _http Http) http.HandlerFunc {
+func InstrumentHandler(next http.Handler, _http Http) http.HandlerFunc {
 	return promhttp.InstrumentHandlerCounter(_http.RequestsTotal,
 		promhttp.InstrumentHandlerDuration(_http.RequestDurationHistogram, next))
 }
diff --git a/watchdog/readconfig.go b/watchdog/readconfig.go
index 88d950c1..fc9321e8 100644
--- a/watchdog/readconfig.go
+++ b/watchdog/readconfig.go
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ func (ReadConfig) Read(hasEnv HasEnv) WatchdogConfig {
 	}
 
 	cfg.metricsPort = 8081
+	cfg.maxInflight = parseIntValue(hasEnv.Getenv("max_inflight"), 0)
 
 	return cfg
 }
@@ -137,4 +138,10 @@ type WatchdogConfig struct {
 
 	// metricsPort is the HTTP port to serve metrics on
 	metricsPort int
+
+	// maxInflight limits the number of simultaneous
+	// requests that the watchdog allows concurrently.
+	// Any request which exceeds this limit will
+	// have an immediate response of 429.
+	maxInflight int
 }
diff --git a/watchdog/vendor/github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/LICENSE b/watchdog/vendor/github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/LICENSE
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ab95f4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/watchdog/vendor/github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+MIT License
+
+Copyright (c) 2019 OpenFaaS
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
+of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
+in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
+to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
+copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
+furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
+copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
+IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
+FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
+AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
+LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
+OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
+SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/watchdog/vendor/github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/concurrency-limiter/concurrency_limiter.go b/watchdog/vendor/github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/concurrency-limiter/concurrency_limiter.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..30c75d89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/watchdog/vendor/github.com/openfaas/faas-middleware/concurrency-limiter/concurrency_limiter.go
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+package limiter
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"net/http"
+	"sync/atomic"
+)
+
+type ConcurrencyLimiter struct {
+	backendHTTPHandler http.Handler
+	/*
+		We keep two counters here in order to make it so that we can know when a request has gone to completed
+		in the tests. We could wrap these up in a condvar, so there's no need to spinlock, but that seems overkill
+		for testing.
+
+		This is effectively a very fancy semaphore built for optimistic concurrency only, and with spinlocks. If
+		you want to add timeouts here / pessimistic concurrency, signaling needs to be added and/or a condvar esque
+		sorta thing needs to be done to wake up waiters who are waiting post-spin.
+
+		Otherwise, there's all sorts of futzing in order to make sure that the concurrency limiter handler
+		has completed
+		The math works on overflow:
+			var x, y uint64
+			x = (1 << 64 - 1)
+			y = (1 << 64 - 1)
+			x++
+			fmt.Println(x)
+			fmt.Println(y)
+			fmt.Println(x - y)
+		Prints:
+			0
+			18446744073709551615
+			1
+	*/
+	requestsStarted   uint64
+	requestsCompleted uint64
+
+	maxInflightRequests uint64
+}
+
+func (cl *ConcurrencyLimiter) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+	requestsStarted := atomic.AddUint64(&cl.requestsStarted, 1)
+	completedRequested := atomic.LoadUint64(&cl.requestsCompleted)
+	if requestsStarted-completedRequested > cl.maxInflightRequests {
+		// This is a failure pathway, and we do not want to block on the write to finish
+		atomic.AddUint64(&cl.requestsCompleted, 1)
+		w.WriteHeader(http.StatusTooManyRequests)
+		fmt.Fprintf(w, "Concurrent request limit exceeded. Max concurrent requests: %d\n", cl.maxInflightRequests)
+		return
+	}
+	cl.backendHTTPHandler.ServeHTTP(w, r)
+	atomic.AddUint64(&cl.requestsCompleted, 1)
+}
+
+// NewConcurrencyLimiter creates a handler which limits the active number of active, concurrent
+// requests. If the concurrency limit is less than, or equal to 0, then it will just return the handler
+// passed to it.
+func NewConcurrencyLimiter(handler http.Handler, concurrencyLimit int) http.Handler {
+	if concurrencyLimit <= 0 {
+		return handler
+	}
+
+	return &ConcurrencyLimiter{
+		backendHTTPHandler:  handler,
+		maxInflightRequests: uint64(concurrencyLimit),
+	}
+}