requests 2.6.1 errors on decoding JSON in PP response

example.py

# with performanceplatform-client==0.8.2
from performanceplatform.client import DataSet


dataset = DataSet.from_group_and_type('https://www.performance.service.gov.uk/data',
                                      'govuk-info',
                                      'page-contacts')

query_parameters = {
    'start_at': '2015-03-12T00:00:00Z',
    'period': 'day',
    'end_at': '2015-04-23T00:00:00Z',
    'collect': 'total:sum',
    'group_by': 'pagePath',
    'filter_by_prefix': 'pagePath:/a'
}

json_data = dataset.get(query_parameters)
print json_data

output

# with requests 2.6.0:
$ python example.py
{u'warning': u'Warning: This data-set is unpublished. Data may be subject to change or be inaccurate.', u'data': [{u'total:sum': 1.0, u'pagePath': u'/aaib-reports', u'_count': 1.0, u'_group_count': 1, u'values': [{u'total:sum': None, u'_end_at': u'2015-03-13T00:00:00+00:00', u'_count': 0, u'_start_at': u'2015-03-12T00:00:00+00:00'}, ...


# with requests 2.6.1:
$ python example.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "example.py", line 17, in <module>
    json_data = dataset.get(query_parameters)
  File "/Users/jennyduckett/virtualenvs/performanceplatform-govuk-stats/lib/python2.7/site-packages/performanceplatform/client/data_set.py", line 51, in get
    return self._get(self._to_query_string(query_parameters))
  File "/Users/jennyduckett/virtualenvs/performanceplatform-govuk-stats/lib/python2.7/site-packages/performanceplatform/client/base.py", line 53, in _get
    return self._request('GET', path)
  File "/Users/jennyduckett/virtualenvs/performanceplatform-govuk-stats/lib/python2.7/site-packages/performanceplatform/client/base.py", line 120, in _request
    json = response.json()
  File "/Users/jennyduckett/virtualenvs/performanceplatform-govuk-stats/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/models.py", line 819, in json
    return json.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/boxen/homebrew/Cellar/python/2.7.8/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 338, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/opt/boxen/homebrew/Cellar/python/2.7.8/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 366, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/opt/boxen/homebrew/Cellar/python/2.7.8/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 384, in raw_decode
    raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

This issue looks related: https://github.com/kennethreitz/requests/issues/2561