Does frying in canola instead of shortening change the fry time?
The type of fat you use makes no difference in cooking time, as long as you use a fat with a smoke point above that you want to cook at. There's a related question on the site about fats for deep frying which talks about the properties of different fats. Canola is absolutely fine to use instead of crisco or some other shortening. 

It sounds to me like you had the fat just where you needed to be, I think what went wrong is your dough. From what you describe it sounds like you may have had it too moist. Moisture is important in the dough as it's the conversion of water to steam that gives you the puff, but too much moisture means you will saturate it. Try a thicker dough.