I have to admit it looks like the AKC is improving its scope, however.
When I "left" the dog world by 1990, there was only Conformation, Obedience, Tracking, and some hunting competitions. The former 2 being the prominent competitions.
Now, I come back and find all this bewildering stuff....."agility", "flyball", other forms of obedience (all of which I sort of see as obedience), herding tests of various levels.
And just very, very recently, AKC FINALLY approved "working-dog sport", basically another phrase for SCHUTZHUND.
My only problem with AKC is they are not REQUIRING any of these non-conformation events to qualify as a conformation champion. Which is probably what they should do.
I think you've hit on the key, though. Until a conformation dog is required to get a working certificate in whatever the breed's skill is (as they do with Labrador Retrievers in England), it isn't going to really have an effect.
I will say that the Agility offerings in AKC are pretty lame compared to those in USDAA and NADAC . . . of course AKC does it all and the latter organizations are exclusively agility. But AKC only offers two classes -- standard and jumpers -- and it's kind of annoying to hang about all day just to run a 60-second course twice. In USDAA they offer six or seven different classes in a typical two-day show, most of them twice. Standard, Jumpers, Gamblers, Snooker, Pairs Relay, Speed Jumping, Steeplechase . . . you and your dog can be busy for hours! It's very hard to get a title though, you have to have 3 standard qualifying scores and one each of all the others!
A conformation champion means simply what it says it says.
susie