diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index 0a6020220c..bb07432d49 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -51103,7 +51103,7 @@ the @code{home-dotfiles-service-type} will only provision dotfiles from this
 subset of applications.  This field will be ignored if @code{layout} is set
 to @code{'plain}.
 
-@item @code{excluded} (default: @code{'(".*~" ".*\\.swp" "\\.git" "\\.gitignore")}) (type: list-of-strings)
+@item @code{excluded} (default: @code{'(".*~" ".*\\.swp" "\\.git/.*" "\\.gitignore")}) (type: list-of-strings)
 The list of file patterns @code{home-dotfiles-service-type} will exclude
 while visiting each one of the @code{directories}.
 
diff --git a/gnu/home/services/dotfiles.scm b/gnu/home/services/dotfiles.scm
index c7c798abc4..1860009275 100644
--- a/gnu/home/services/dotfiles.scm
+++ b/gnu/home/services/dotfiles.scm
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 (define %home-dotfiles-excluded
   '(".*~"
     ".*\\.swp"
-    "\\.git"
+    "\\.git/.*"
     "\\.gitignore"))
 
 (define %home-dotfiles-layouts
@@ -135,8 +135,7 @@ value, excluding files that match any of the patterns configured."
     (define (filter-files directory)
       (find-files directory
                   (lambda (file stat)
-                    (not (regexp-exec exclusion-rx
-                                      (basename file))))))
+                    (not (regexp-exec exclusion-rx file)))))
     (if (and stow? packages (maybe-value-set? packages))
         (append-map filter-files
                     (map (lambda (pkg)