diff --git a/common.py b/common.py
index 465f48e..56040f0 100644
--- a/common.py
+++ b/common.py
@@ -26,12 +26,13 @@ class HumbugAPI():
         request["email"] = self.email
         request["api-key"] = self.api_key
         request["client"] = self.client_name
-        request["failures"] = 0
 
         for (key, val) in request.iteritems():
             if not (isinstance(val, str) or isinstance(val, unicode)):
                 request[key] = simplejson.dumps(val)
 
+        request["failures"] = 0
+
         while True:
             try:
                 res = requests.post(urlparse.urljoin(self.base_url, url), data=request,