Save my Christmas tree ornaments

The problem is he's very sneaky about it. We can sit in the room with the tree for hours on end and he won't touch it. Then, I get up to use the bathroom or grab the phone or something, and he goes to it. He's very patient and waits for his opportunities. Our older dog did the same thing (and still does with some things). I've seen her perform this trick numerous times. I'll leave a glass of water on the end table, and get up to run upstairs for something. She'll stare at the stairway until she thinks I'm "gone" then she'll hop up on the sofa and drink the water. She doesn't do it right away. She literally waits until she thinks it's safe, then goes for it. The little one is the same way. And both of them know they're not supposed to do it. I've gotten where I don't even have to say anything when I catch them. If they realize I'm watching them, they stop and walk away. Sometimes all it takes is me clearing my throat as in, "hey, I can see you" and they stop.

i know that this is late but maybe will work next year..... last year i didnt do the big tree since we had just taken skittles in and she had lived outside for her first 6 months or so and knew how to climb trees, (ie the cat) i only did 2  5 ft pencil trees that we put up on tables,,, she still scratched the trunk since it had bark on it just like a real tree..... this year i wanted to put up the 7 1/2 ft white tree ( it was 2 yrs old and never been out of the box) i had charlie make me a box 18 inches tall and large enough for the stand to sit on it ...the feet of the tree was that we could zip tie it to the box and i found a piece of material long enough to cover the box for a skirt..... having the big dogs i didnt was bat tail  (you know lab tails) knocking off ornaments..... it worked pretty good although skittles climbed up in the tree and broke about 5 of the glass ornaments..... and the girls chewed one of the pinecone santa ornaments...... i tried the gate routine when my older cats were young and they just jumped the fence..... they really didnt climb though just chewed on a garland and played with the lights...... i will have to get a picture of the tree on our website so you can see what it looked like ....i though it looked good  and plan on doing the same thing when we get the big green tree out.....   plus there was room under the tree for presents....