Susanna Reid baffled as Ben Shephard lies on her lap and pretends to be a dog on Good Morning Britain

News reporter Ben Shephard turned lap dog on Good Morning Britain when he awkwardly asked Susanna Reid to pet him like a dog.

Shephard, 40, and Reid, 44, were talking to Colleen Ferguson who was on the ITV breakfast show with her German Shepherd Inca to talk about how he detected her lung cancer.

After wrapping up the interview, Shephard flopped his head down on his co-host's legs and asked her to pet him like a dog.

"Can you just scratch my head like that? Come on," he said.

Clearly surprised by his demands, Reid awkwardly played along before joking: "Am I allowed to do this?"

Clearly enjoying the role play, Shephard continued after the competition segment as he started shaking and telling Reid: “That's much better - my leg started going then.”

Reid, dropped her head in her hands and cried out: “Oh my days. Get the German Shepherd back!”

Fans of the show appeared to be amused by Shephard’s antics with one tweeting: "Love @GMB this morning @susannareid100 and @benshephard are very entertaining."

Another posted: "The dynamic between @susannareid100 & @BenShephard is fist-gnawingly weird today. Oh braindead morning television, how I love thee.#GMB @GMB."

Shephard was recently left red-faced during an interview on the breakfast show with Ant-Man star Paul Rudd.

On showing the US actor a Lego version of himself, he added: “There you go, have a play with yourself.”