His family moved to Varna when he was a child and he finished a men's high school there.
He graduated in architecture from the Technical University of Munich in 1899 and returned to Varna to start his practice as an architect.
After the 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état, he was declared a public enemy and his property was confiscated by the communist authorities.
His earliest work, the Hristo Botev Cotton Factory of 1899, is an eclectic brick structure with a significant German influence.
During his work on Grand Hotel Musala, Dabkov visited New York City to study the Flatiron Building and included Art Deco elements.