SAINT-HYACINTHE, Que. - A stunned teenage mother was charged with manslaughter Tuesday, one day after her three-week-old daughter was mauled to death by a dog.

On her way out of the Quebec courtroom, the distraught 17-year-old locked eyes with her boyfriend, the newborn baby's father, who was still in disbelief himself.

"I know that it's not really her fault," the 19-year-old man told reporters before the young woman's youth court appearance.

"She's an excellent mother."

Police say a dog turned on the newborn after she had been left unattended with two huskies at the couple's home in the village of St-Barnabe-Sud, about 65 kilometres northeast of Montreal.

The baby's father says the mother told him that everything happened quickly at the residence they share with another couple.

He says she went outside to join her mother -- the baby's grandmother -- for a smoke and she wasn't even a few metres from the girl. Within a matter of seconds, she heard something from inside the house.

"She (the baby) was in a little rocking chair and she was rocking gently," he said.

"She (the mother) hadn't even closed the door when she heard (a) noise. She went back into the house. And the dog had jumped on the child.

"It was a moment of inattention."

The huskies, a male and a female, belong to the couple's housemates, the newborn's father said. He described them as "super-affectionate," obedient pets.

"We never thought this could happen," he said.

Police also arrested the baby's 37-year-old grandmother Monday, but did not press charges against her.

Andre Williams, the lawyer for the 17-year-old girl, said the manslaughter charge laid by the Crown came as a surprise, especially so soon after the baby's death.

"She's destroyed," Williams said of the mother, who shuffled into the courtroom wearing track pants and a grey T-shirt.

"She lost her child yesterday. She's 17 years old, so you can imagine how she is (right) now."

Williams contends the charge of manslaughter, which carries no minimum or maximum sentence, will be very difficult to prove. He had expected a charge of criminal negligence causing death.

"I'm quite surprised that they've already laid charges against a young girl who is in fragile state, on top of which they also detained her (on Monday night)," he said at the St-Hyacinthe courthouse.

The teenager, who cannot be identified because she's a minor, returns to court on Aug. 31 after her release Tuesday.

As part of the conditions of the girl's release, Judge Viviane Primeau told her she is not allowed to look after children under the age of 12.

"We had the proof that we needed this morning, so that's the reason why we have made our decision," prosecutor Caroline Fontaine said of the manslaughter charge.

One neighbour in the rural community of St-Barnabe-Sud, which has a population of about 900, said he's seen the two dogs running around wild, not appearing to obey orders from their master.

"I live in the country and I'm not comfortable with the idea of having dogs running around on my property without being supervised," Guy Vaillancourt, himself a grandfather of a three-year-old girl, said in an interview.

Vaillancourt recalled that the animals once approached his own dog but appeared friendly.

"I didn't have any problems with them," he said. "I petted them and they did not show any aggressiveness."

The teenage father, wearing a faded, tattered AC/DC T-shirt, said he took anti-depressants to help cope with the shock of the previous 24 hours.

The man said he appreciated all the support he's received from family and friends, several of whom were in the courtroom Tuesday.

"I have a funeral for this child to take care of and right now I don't make any money, so it's going to be very difficult," he said.

"I'm trying to sort things out however I can."

(With a file from Peter Rakobowchuk in Montreal)