diff --git a/spacy/syntax/transition_system.pyx b/spacy/syntax/transition_system.pyx
index 07102aeb0..211b2c950 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/transition_system.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/transition_system.pyx
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 from cpython.ref cimport PyObject, Py_INCREF, Py_XDECREF
 from cymem.cymem cimport Pool
 from thinc.typedefs cimport weight_t
-from collections import defaultdict
+from collections import defaultdict, OrderedDict
 
 from ..structs cimport TokenC
 from .stateclass cimport StateClass
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ cdef void* _init_state(Pool mem, int length, void* tokens) except NULL:
 
 
 cdef class TransitionSystem:
-    def __init__(self, StringStore string_table, dict labels_by_action):
+    def __init__(self, StringStore string_table, labels_by_action):
         self.mem = Pool()
         self.strings = string_table
         self.n_moves = 0
@@ -34,14 +34,14 @@ cdef class TransitionSystem:
 
         self.c = <Transition*>self.mem.alloc(self._size, sizeof(Transition))
 
-        for action, label_strs in sorted(labels_by_action.items()):
+        for action, label_strs in labels_by_action.items():
             for label_str in label_strs:
                 self.add_action(int(action), label_str)
         self.root_label = self.strings['ROOT']
         self.init_beam_state = _init_state
 
     def __reduce__(self):
-        labels_by_action = {}
+        labels_by_action = OrderedDict()
         cdef Transition t
         for trans in self.c[:self.n_moves]:
             label_str = self.strings[trans.label]
@@ -77,6 +77,11 @@ cdef class TransitionSystem:
                     history.append(i)
                     action.do(state.c, action.label)
                     break
+            else:
+                print(gold.words)
+                print(gold.ner)
+                print(history)
+                raise ValueError("Could not find gold move")
         return history
 
     cdef int initialize_state(self, StateC* state) nogil: