Dog Training - Neurosis?

My next door neighbours have a dog. Actually still a pup.
Nice personality, nice dog. Unfortunately. It most likely will not stay that way.
I expect the dog will either to become bad-tempered, or neurotic; or both.
For two instances:
A) They leave the dog outside, chained to a back stair railing (of course, with an actual area of about 10 square feet to move about) for no apparent reasons; this is especially puzzling to the dog, who whines and mewls for extended periods of time, thinking it is being punished by being exclude from the family/pack/household. And pf course they ignore the dog the entire time.
B) When the dog misbehaves - i.e. doesn't immediately obey and order - they hit the dog. With the bare hand, usually. And naturally enough the orders given are never the same, nor are they delivered the same way. Poor dog; not misbehaving or disobeying, just not understanding and confused. And punished for same.
I wonder how the neighbours would react if every time I gave them an order in a foreign language and they didn't immediately obey, I whacked them on the nose with a newspaper (better treatment than the dog gets at that).
I strongly suspect that they would either become bad-tempered or neurotic.