Ready for his close-up: New-found fame

The role of "Summerlin dog" has been cast. Of the more than 100 canines who auditioned in March at a casting call issued by The Howard Hughes Corp., developer of Summerlin, it is Sport, a Border collie/springer spaniel mix who is on the road to stardom. Starting in September, he will appear in print advertisements promoting the master-planned community.

Rescued two years ago from an animal shelter, Sport's story is, in a sense, one of rags to riches.

His owner is Nicole Dutt-Roberts, a co-founder of the Las Vegas-based Heaven Can Wait animal sanctuary, a nonprofit organization that finds homes for homeless and hard-to-place pets. She said she sensed "something magical" about Sport from the beginning.

"He was an active, energetic puppy with lots of smarts, but he was also very ill. After nursing him back to health, I had planned to place him with another family, but my husband and I fell in love with him and the timing was right. Sport came into our lives at a time when one of our other dogs was diagnosed with cancer, so he helped to fill our lives with happiness."

Sport participates in Tales to Tails, a literacy program for children who have difficulty reading. The six-week program allows youngsters to spend a few hours each week reading to dogs that have been trained to pay attention and interact with the child.

"Kids who feel intimidated reading out loud in class have no qualms about reading to a dog," Dutt-Roberts said. "It's a proven formula for success, and participants have improved their reading skills by as much as two grade levels."

Kim Haley, a marketing executive at Hughes Corp., said Sport's audition impressed her almost immediately.

"Even before I learned about Sport's incredible background, I knew he had character," she said. "Besides being well trained and socialized, Sport seemed to embody the dog everyone once knew, once had or once longed for -- smart, energetic and happy. He's like the canine version of the freckle-faced, all-American kid. That's why he's the Summerlin dog."

Summerlin's current print promotion features actual residents engaged in various activities at the community. Haley said a dog "seemed like a natural and fun addition" to the campaign.

"After all, the community is full of dog lovers and their dogs who walk the trails and engage in a variety of outdoor activities."

Summerlin is a dog-friendly community, where trails and sidewalks are lined with "dogipots" -- receptacles for pet waste. Dogs also are welcome in the community's parks and at many of its events.

Dutt-Roberts and her husband, Mark, have been residents of Summerlin for six years.

"It's so beautiful here, and I love seeing people outdoors enjoying themselves," Dutt-Roberts said. "Although our only children are the four-legged kind, we appreciate the fact that Summerlin is so family-friendly. We like living in a neighborhood where there are lots of children ... it creates a vitality that is otherwise missing in adult-only communities."

Summerlin ranked as the nation's best-selling master-planned community for much of the last decade, according to independent surveys. It aligns the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley and comprises villages. Summerlin is home to parks, trails, houses of worship, shopping centers, medical facilities, cultural facilities and business parks.

Nearly 120 model homes showcase the available single-family homes, townhomes and condominiums. Residences are priced from the mid-$300,000s to more than $2 million. Custom-home sites in The Ridges village are priced from the $500,000s. Monthly rent for apartments starts from the low $800s.

For more information, visit www.reviewjournal.com/real estate and click on the Summerlin link.

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