You can stop a process running in dbx by pressing Ctrl+C (^C). When you stop a process using ^C, dbx ignores the ^C, but the child process accepts it as a SIGINT and stops. You can then inspect the process as if it had been stopped by a breakpoint.
To resume execution after stopping a program with ^C, use the cont command. You do not need to use the cont optional modifier, sig signal-name, to resume execution. The cont command resumes the child process after cancelling the pending signal.