diff --git a/deepspeech/training/trainer.py b/deepspeech/training/trainer.py
index bdb68310a08ccdbabe5487d4ba9f73d8f259f5d6..b31ddcad6584aefc669d5fd361e76a7f993f97ac 100644
--- a/deepspeech/training/trainer.py
+++ b/deepspeech/training/trainer.py
@@ -185,7 +185,8 @@ class Trainer():
                 batch_sampler.set_epoch(self.epoch)
 
     def after_train_batch(self):
-        profiler.add_profiler_step(self.args.profiler_options)
+        if self.args.profiler_options:
+            profiler.add_profiler_step(self.args.profiler_options)
 
     def train(self):
         """The training process control by epoch."""
diff --git a/deepspeech/utils/profiler.py b/deepspeech/utils/profiler.py
index 5b8389be8ab261b8ad94c2c291af4b725475891e..357840a629d482f9e26bef153654c4cb04812f00 100644
--- a/deepspeech/utils/profiler.py
+++ b/deepspeech/utils/profiler.py
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ class ProfilerOptions(object):
         self._parse_from_string(options_str)
 
     def _parse_from_string(self, options_str):
+        if not options_str:
+            return
+            
         for kv in options_str.replace(' ', '').split(';'):
             key, value = kv.split('=')
             if key == 'batch_range':
diff --git a/examples/tiny/s0/conf/deepspeech2.yaml b/examples/tiny/s0/conf/deepspeech2.yaml
index 64598b4be5b58dd26995c168d618ca2d9ed2aff3..408996557e79a058cba4fec8eea107ffdea4eb87 100644
--- a/examples/tiny/s0/conf/deepspeech2.yaml
+++ b/examples/tiny/s0/conf/deepspeech2.yaml
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ training:
   n_epoch: 10
   accum_grad: 1
   lr: 1e-5 
-  lr_decay: 1.0 
+  lr_decay: 0.8 
   weight_decay: 1e-06
   global_grad_clip: 5.0
   log_interval: 1
diff --git a/examples/tiny/s0/local/train.sh b/examples/tiny/s0/local/train.sh
index a657ce345993cb3df844fe461a5fa1357218b5fd..f96508b4f594acd360c8a1e9073c7462f3d4a97e 100755
--- a/examples/tiny/s0/local/train.sh
+++ b/examples/tiny/s0/local/train.sh
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ python3 -u ${BIN_DIR}/train.py \
 --config ${config_path} \
 --output exp/${ckpt_name} \
 --model_type ${model_type} \
---profiler_options ${profiler_options} \
+--profiler_options "${profiler_options}" \
 --seed ${seed}
 
 if [ ${seed} != 0  ]; then