I would see this as a red flag , of course , but to jump to leaving or divorce , as others suggest , seems dire to me . I ' d talk to your husband and demand that he or you both go to counseling for anger management . The point of you going with him is to have a controlled environment to tell him how you feel about his actions toward your dog . If you husband refuses to do this , then I would consider something more serious like a separation or leaving . People do stupid shit . They deserve another chance . If they don ' t try to fix it , then you make a decision . I personally think it ' s very wrong to hit an animal , but I don ' t make the leap that by hitting an animal , you will hit a person . As others said , it is more likely , so you need to be careful . but if you love your husband , he deserves a chance to fix his mistake . I personally don ' t think that making this mistake on an animal once demands a destructive reaction . I think it deserves a corrective one . I ' m also assuming this isn ' t regular behavior , but probably something he picked up in his abusive youth . If he is hitting the dog frequently , and this wasn ' t just a very poor moment of bad judgement , then I wouldn ' t be so open to trying to resolve this .