A socially confident dog had quite the reaction after boarding a train only to find no one was in the mood to pet him.

Petting a dog isn’t just enjoyable for the canine, it can have a positive impact on the human involved too. A 2022 study published in the journal PLoS One found that viewing, feeling and touching real dogs led to an increase in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

This suggests petting might activate more attentional processes and elicits strong emotional arousal. Simply put: petting a dog makes you feel good.

Gilbert the dog is no stranger to being petted while out and about in his home city of London with owner Shannon.

“I bought him as a puppy when he was 10 weeks old,” Shannon told Newsweek. “He’s honestly such a people dog, he loves cuddles and being on laps.”

Shannon puts part of his popularity down to the fact Gilbert is a unique mix of breeds. “He’s a mix of pug, King Charles spaniel and Brussels Griffon,” she said.

During a recent trip out to see a friend living in Camden, however, Gilbert was dismayed to discover not everyone is quite so enamored with him.

Boarding a train on the London Underground wearing his best bowtie, Gilbert must have assumed at least one person would want to shower him with affection.

He wasn’t alone in making that assumption either. “He loves going on trains because he usually gets a lot of attention,” Shannon said. “I actually started filming as I expected the woman on the right to pet him but she didn’t.”

In fact, no one on the train appeared to want to pet Gilbert, much to his apparent shock and surprise. At one point he even approaches one passenger, seemingly offering himself up to be petted. These efforts prove fruitless though. It was a reaction Shannon captured in full on her camera with the resulting footage shared to her TikTok thatweirdboatgirl.

“He has such a personality and can get quite sulky! I think he genuinely was upset that nobody was giving him attention,” she said.

Shannon knows Gilbert better than anyone and, in her mind, the look she gave him towards the end of the video was saying one thing and one thing alone: “Mom! These people are mean!”

Shannon said she shared the clip to social media because “Gilbert looked so sad and it was really cute” but she also thought it might “cause a bit of outrage” over the fact nobody pet him.

It certainly appears to have had the desired effect, with the video amassing over 1.2 million views and a slew of comments from dog lovers stunned at the lack of attention.

“Gilbert deserves pets immediately,” one viewer said. Another wrote: “What is wrong with people?! If I lived in London and happened to have the fortune of sharing a tube carriage with Gilbert, I’d 100 percent give him all the pets.” A third added: “OMG how awful if I was on that train he would be on my lap having cuddles.”

Shannon puts the popularity of the clip down to the fact “people don’t like seeing animals looking sad, especially when clearly asking for attention” though she also thinks it has to do with the fact that Gilbert is such “a unique looking little dog that how can you not want to watch it.”

Whatever the case, she has been heartened by the response. “A lot of people have commented that seeing Gilbert has made their day,” she said. “Honestly it’s just great to share that because he makes me smile every day.”