How would you react to child kicking a puppy?

So. My nephew has been pretty rough our dogs. He would take water and spit water on them. Which the dogs hated. He also would smack them when he got rowdy.

After being told and apprehended multiple times. I finally had enough and got a cup of cold water and splashed him with it. Scolded him that if he didn’t like it, they don’t like it. It stopped him from doing that again, and hadn’t seen him slap the dogs since.