You should leave your husband . He is not a good person . He is willing to hit an innocent animal hard enough to make it scream . This is just the first time you ' ve ever seen him do it . You know now , from his behavior , that he has been hurting Kvik this whole time , and you don ' t know how badly it ' s been . Your husband is an animal abuser and has already made it extremely clear he will not listen to you on this matter . He has no interest in actually training this dog , he will continue to abuse him . Not to mention Kvik is scared of him , and he ' s a large dog . He ' s probably not going to put up with being smacked around forever . Kvik is likely going to seriously injure your husband one day , and that will be the end of his life . I work with scared animals regularly . They absolutely will reach a point where the only option in their brain is ' fight '. The healthiest option for you is to leave especially considering part of what is making you stay is that you ' ve ' saved ' him , and I imagine that has created an unhealthy dynamic and take the dog , and make absolutely certain you keep the dog . If you really can ' t leave yet , then you MUST protect this dog . He deserves a home where he can be happy and safe . You need to rehome him , regardless of what your husband wants . Do it behind his back if you must . This dog can not stay with your husband , he will likely never forget the abuse he suffered . You need to rehome him , and make SURE whoever you rehome him to knows his background , that he has been hit very hard before . Animals can get PTSD just like people and it can affect them for the rest of their lives .