diff --git a/scrapy/commands/shell.py b/scrapy/commands/shell.py
index f10da4370..cb441bc9d 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/shell.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/shell.py
@@ -5,11 +5,13 @@ See documentation in docs/topics/shell.rst
 """
 
 from threading import Thread
+import urlparse
 from w3lib.url import any_to_uri
 
 from scrapy.commands import ScrapyCommand
 from scrapy.shell import Shell
 from scrapy.http import Request
+from scrapy.utils.url import add_http_if_no_scheme
 from scrapy.utils.spider import spidercls_for_request, DefaultSpider
 
 
@@ -43,7 +45,16 @@ class Command(ScrapyCommand):
     def run(self, args, opts):
         url = args[0] if args else None
         if url:
-            url = any_to_uri(url)
+            parts = urlparse.urlsplit(url)
+            if not parts.scheme:
+                if "." not in parts.path.split("/", 1)[0]:
+                    url = any_to_uri(url)
+
+                for pattern in ["/", "./", "../"]:
+                    if url.startswith(pattern):
+                        url = any_to_uri(url)
+                        break
+                url = add_http_if_no_scheme(url)
 
         spider_loader = self.crawler_process.spider_loader