diff --git a/watcherclient/common/utils.py b/watcherclient/common/utils.py
index bb5b9e3..990818e 100644
--- a/watcherclient/common/utils.py
+++ b/watcherclient/common/utils.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 
 import argparse
 import json
+import uuid
 
 from oslo_utils import importutils
 
@@ -178,3 +179,16 @@ def common_filters(limit=None, sort_key=None, sort_dir=None):
     if sort_dir is not None:
         filters.append('sort_dir=%s' % sort_dir)
     return filters
+
+
+def is_uuid_like(val):
+    """Returns validation of a value as a UUID.
+
+    For our purposes, a UUID is a canonical form string:
+    aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa
+
+    """
+    try:
+        return str(uuid.UUID(val)) == val
+    except (TypeError, ValueError, AttributeError):
+        return False
diff --git a/watcherclient/v1/audit_shell.py b/watcherclient/v1/audit_shell.py
index a882a1b..331d405 100644
--- a/watcherclient/v1/audit_shell.py
+++ b/watcherclient/v1/audit_shell.py
@@ -115,6 +115,10 @@ def do_audit_create(cc, args):
     field_list = ['audit_template_uuid', 'type', 'deadline']
     fields = dict((k, v) for (k, v) in vars(args).items()
                   if k in field_list and not (v is None))
+    if fields.get('audit_template_uuid'):
+        if not utils.is_uuid_like(fields['audit_template_uuid']):
+            fields['audit_template_uuid'] = cc.audit_template.get(
+                fields['audit_template'])
     audit = cc.audit.create(**fields)
     field_list.append('uuid')
     data = dict([(f, getattr(audit, f, '')) for f in field_list])