In his 2011 autobiography "Frame of Mind", Dott describes his childhood growing up in the run-down Easterhouse estate in Glasgow. As a boy, he developed a strong relationship with Alex Lambie, a snooker club owner from Larkhall in Lanarkshire, who mentored Dott from the age of 12 and went on to manage his professional career. Dott has described Lambie as a "second father" to him. In 1997, Dott began a relationship with Lambie's 16-year-old daughter Elaine. The couple married in 2003 and had their first child, a son named Lewis, in 2004.