diff --git a/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood-goal.xml b/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood-goal.xml
index 5d596ce7b3..125bce3c4a 100644
--- a/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood-goal.xml
+++ b/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood-goal.xml
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 	<exclude-pattern>.*lang/.*/ast/.*.java</exclude-pattern>
 	<exclude-pattern>.*cppast/.*.java</exclude-pattern>
 
+	<rule ref="rulesets/internal/pmdspecific.xml"/>
+
 	<rule ref="rulesets/basic.xml">
     	<exclude name="CollapsibleIfStatements"/>
 	</rule>
diff --git a/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood.xml b/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood.xml
index e798fd58f6..c398e609b5 100644
--- a/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood.xml
+++ b/pmd/rulesets/internal/dogfood.xml
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 	   EmptyCatchBlock
 	-->
 
+	<rule ref="rulesets/internal/pmdspecific.xml"/>
+
 	<rule ref="rulesets/basic.xml">
     	<exclude name="CollapsibleIfStatements"/>
 	</rule>
diff --git a/pmd/rulesets/internal/pmdspecific.xml b/pmd/rulesets/internal/pmdspecific.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fa24695aec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd/rulesets/internal/pmdspecific.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+
+<ruleset name="PMD specific rules"
+    xmlns="http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset/1.0.0"
+    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset/1.0.0 http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset_xml_schema.xsd"
+    xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://pmd.sf.net/ruleset_xml_schema.xsd">
+  <description>These rules check for problems that are specific to the PMD codebase and may not be applicable to other projects.</description>
+
+  <rule name="UseInstanceOftoCompareClasses"
+      language="java" since="5.0"
+      message="replace o.getClass().equals(MyClass.class) with o instanceof MyClass"
+      class="net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.rule.XPathRule">
+    <description>replace o.getClass().equals(MyClass.class) with o instanceof MyClass. Make sure MyClass doesn't have descendants</description>
+    <priority>3</priority>
+    <properties>
+      <property name="xpath">
+        <value>
+<![CDATA[
+//PrimaryExpression[
+(PrimaryPrefix[Name[ends-with(@Image, 'getClass')]] or PrimarySuffix[@Image='getClass'])
+and
+PrimarySuffix[Arguments[count(ArgumentList)=0]]
+and
+PrimarySuffix[@Image='equals']
+and
+PrimarySuffix/Arguments/ArgumentList/Expression/PrimaryExpression/PrimaryPrefix
+/ResultType/Type/ReferenceType/ClassOrInterfaceType
+]
+]]>
+        </value>
+      </property>
+    </properties>
+  </rule>
+
+  <rule name="ReversedUseInstanceOftoCompareClasses"
+      language="java" since="5.0"
+      message="replace MyClass.class.equals(o.getClass()) with o instanceof MyClass"
+      class="net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.rule.XPathRule">
+    <description>replace MyClass.class.equals(o.getClass()) with o instanceof MyClass. Make sure MyClass doesn't have descendants</description>
+    <priority>3</priority>
+    <properties>
+      <property name="xpath">
+        <value>
+<![CDATA[
+//PrimaryExpression[
+PrimaryPrefix[ResultType/Type/ReferenceType/ClassOrInterfaceType]
+and
+PrimarySuffix[@Image='equals']
+and
+PrimarySuffix/Arguments/ArgumentList/Expression/PrimaryExpression[
+  PrimaryPrefix[Name[ends-with(@Image, 'getClass')]]
+  and
+  PrimarySuffix[Arguments[count(ArgumentList)=0]]
+  ]
+]
+]]>
+        </value>
+      </property>
+    </properties>
+  </rule>
+
+</ruleset>