phone tag

Dog

[Cockney slang]phone

via dog and bone

hold the phone

stop; wait; whoa.

phone in

To fulfill a responsibility with a minimum effort rather than the appropriate level of effort.

tag along

To accompany, join, or follow; to go with.

telephone tag

A situation in which a person unsuccessfully attempts to contact another person by telephone and leaves a message instead, and in which the second person then unsuccessfully attempts to return the initial call and leaves a message for the first person, and so on as if the two are playing a game of tag in which the most recent person to have been left with a message is now designated as "it" (i.e. as the player now obliged to chase the other and to attempt anew to make contact).