 During a visit to Tokyo, Dobson witnessed a demonstration of what was then the little-known martial art aikido on an American military base in Yokohama.He instantly fell in love with the art and six months later entered the Aikikai Hombu Dojo as an "uchi-deshi" (live-in student), and trained as uchi-deshi until his marriage in 1964.He was one of only two non-Japanese to enjoy this privilege during that early era, the other being André Nocquet.