diff --git a/docs/manpages/virsh.rst b/docs/manpages/virsh.rst
index 5731656b1d..199c221204 100644
--- a/docs/manpages/virsh.rst
+++ b/docs/manpages/virsh.rst
@@ -2631,15 +2631,16 @@ guest-agent-timeout
 
 .. code-block::
 
-   guest-agent-timeout domain --timeout value
+   guest-agent-timeout domain [--timeout value]
 
 Set how long to wait for a response from guest agent commands. By default,
 agent commands block forever waiting for a response. ``value`` must be a
 positive value (wait for given amount of seconds) or one of the following
 values:
 
-* -2 - block forever waiting for a result,
-* -1 - reset timeout to the default value,
+* -2 - block forever waiting for a result (used when --timeout is omitted),
+* -1 - reset timeout to the default value (currently defined as 5 seconds in
+  libvirt daemon),
 * 0 - do not wait at all,
 
 
diff --git a/tools/virsh-domain.c b/tools/virsh-domain.c
index 286cf79671..1f3a549d9a 100644
--- a/tools/virsh-domain.c
+++ b/tools/virsh-domain.c
@@ -14207,7 +14207,7 @@ static bool
 cmdGuestAgentTimeout(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd *cmd)
 {
     virDomainPtr dom = NULL;
-    int timeout;
+    int timeout = VIR_DOMAIN_AGENT_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT_BLOCK;
     const unsigned int flags = 0;
     bool ret = false;