diff --git a/cubids/tests/test_bond.py b/cubids/tests/test_bond.py
index 28211cc2d..2f181f12f 100644
--- a/cubids/tests/test_bond.py
+++ b/cubids/tests/test_bond.py
@@ -983,11 +983,27 @@ def test_datalad_integration(tmp_path):
 def test_validator(tmp_path):
     """Test validator."""
     data_root = get_data(tmp_path)
-
+ 
+    # Ensure the dataset directory exists
+    dataset_dir = os.path.join(data_root, "complete")
+    # Debugging: Print the dataset_dir
+    print("Dataset dir:", dataset_dir)
+    print(os.listdir(dataset_dir))
+    if not os.path.exists(dataset_dir):
+        raise FileNotFoundError(f"Dataset directory does not exist: {dataset_dir}")
+    
     # test the validator in valid dataset
-    call = build_validator_call(str(data_root) + "/complete")
+    call = build_validator_call(dataset_dir)
+    
+    # Debugging: Print the constructed command
+    print("Validator command:", call)
+    
     ret = run_validator(call)
 
+    # Print the output for debugging
+    print("Validator output:", ret.stdout.decode("UTF-8"))
+    print("Validator error:", ret.stderr.decode("UTF-8"))
+
     assert ret.returncode == 0
     parsed = parse_validator_output(ret.stdout.decode("UTF-8"))
 
diff --git a/cubids/validator.py b/cubids/validator.py
index 01dad11c8..1f6bdb7be 100644
--- a/cubids/validator.py
+++ b/cubids/validator.py
@@ -16,12 +16,18 @@ def build_validator_call(path, ignore_headers=False):
     """Build a subprocess command to the bids validator."""
     # build docker call
     # CuBIDS automatically ignores subject consistency.
-    command = ["bids-validator", "--verbose", "--json", "--ignoreSubjectConsistency"]
+
+    command = ["bids-validator", path, "--verbose", "--json", "--ignoreSubjectConsistency"]
 
     if ignore_headers:
         command.append("--ignoreNiftiHeaders")
 
-    command.append(path)
+    # command = ["bids-validator", "--verbose", "--json", "--ignoreSubjectConsistency"]
+
+    # if ignore_headers:
+    #     command.append("--ignoreNiftiHeaders")
+
+    # command.append(path)
 
     return command