JenniferCrank says:

Haha 😉 I have been waiting for several years for someone to ask this question. If you watch my runs from big events you will notice that the motion with my arms happens EVERY TIME!! It had become a “thing” for me and people often laugh about it.

To answer your question, you are correct that is has to do with my gap in training with the startline stay and transition from training to trialing. When I taught a startline stay I did lots of proofing. I would run, jump, talk, etc. He learned that none of these behaviors were his release and that he is only to move on “break”. Then when I started to showing him I would walk out very calm and motionless and he quickly learned this is what I did when “it mattered.” My quick solution was to do all the crazy things at a trial that I would do in training. This mostly solved the problem.

Our startline is a work in progress but I know if I act crazy he will not break the first jump. He does stand up but will always go back down before I release and I have allowed this. So maybe next year we can be calm and I will look like a normal person leading out 😉