How do you unclog a portable dishwasher?

A dishwasher is made up of a lot of different, delicate little parts and an amateur attempting to repair something they know very little about can easily end up causing more trouble than they solve. A dishwasher not draining can be caused by something as small as an internal timer not functioning properly, but little problems like that are almost impossible for the DIY dishwasher repairperson to spot . They may end up destroying a perfectly good dishwasher that was just experiencing a minor glitch because they were too proud (or too cheap) to admit defeat and call in the pros to figure out their dishwasher drainage problems.